Data centres: Balancing AI needs with sustainability
If AI has worsened an energy and emissions problem, it may also be helping solve it in a proverbial double-edged sword. In particular, the AI factor could help in data centre management, which requires sensors and cooling systems
New Delhi: In 2016, Facebook flipped the switch at its Luleå data centre facility on the edge of the Arctic Circle in northern Sweden, utilising freezing cold arctic air and hydroelectric plants as renewable power sources. Microsoft’s Project Natick shifted data centres underwater, but after nine years of trying 117 feet below the North Sea, the company shut down that experiment last summer.
IBM summarised the conundrum: “Organisations have long grappled with energy consumption challenges that accompany traditional data centres, which can lead to increased operational costs and a notable environmental impact.”
The rise of generative artificial intelligence (AI) experiences added to the demand for more computing power and data processing. Khalid Wani, senior director for sales in India at Western Digital, told HT, “AI is now essential in data centre operations through machine learning and predictive analytics. It’s for real-time infrastructure monitoring, proactive issue identification, resource optimisation, and equipment failure prediction.”
Statista Market Insights research estimated the global generative AI market would be worth $207 billion by 2030, up from $44.89 billion in 2023.
If AI has worsened an energy and emissions problem, it may also be helping solve it in a proverbial double-edged sword. In particular, the AI factor could help in data centre management, which requires sensors and cooling systems. Wani added that a reduction in errors means more efficiency because of “reduced downtime and enhanced security via threat detection.”
Data centres could be cooled using various methods, including perimeter cooling, close-coupled cooling, and newer direct liquid cooling (DLC) methods. According to the Uptime Institute’s 2023 Global Data Center Survey, 56% of 1,575 surveyed data centres globally still relied on perimeter cooling, but they believed the continued increase in silicon power would necessitate a switch to DLC methods.
Newer generation AI-optimised chips played a crucial role. Google confirmed in its latest sustainability report that Trillium, its sixth-generation Tensor Processing Unit (TPU), was 67% more energy-efficient than its predecessor.
Kate Brandt, chief sustainability officer at Google, said, “A Google-owned and operated data centre is, on average, approximately 1.8 times as energy efficient as a typical enterprise data centre. In 2023, the average annual power usage effectiveness for our data centres was 1.10.”
Power usage effectiveness (PUE) was a metric to define the efficiency of a data centre. The Uptime Institute’s survey pegged the global average for data centres at 1.58 PUE, an improvement from 1.67 in 2019 and 1.98 in 2011.
Noelle Walsh, corporate vice president, Cloud Operations and Innovation at Microsoft, said in 2022, “Our newest generation of data centres have a design PUE of 1.12 and, with each new generation, we strive to become even more efficient.”
Microsoft’s Azure Maia 100 and Cobalt 100 chips, Amazon’s second-generation Trainium, Meta’s MTIA, and Google’s TPUs illustrated an industry-wide momentum to build AI chips as the foundation of data centres, cloud services and AI training.
Ramanujam Komanduri, country manager at Pure Storage India, said, “AI not only means new and more powerful chips but a very large amount of data being ingested, processed and stored.”
For India, there is an opportunity with momentum towards digitisation and an increasingly connected population accessing the internet and apps. Estimates pegged data centre-specific consumption at around 2% of total electricity use.
He pointed out, “Meta’s 100-petabyte AI Research Super Cluster deal with Pure Storage noted an 80% lower total cost of ownership due to our efficient storage infrastructure. This efficiency means fewer hardware components, less power consumption, and floor space required.”
Captain Ishver Dholakiya, founder and managing director of Goldi Solar, an Indian tech company that makes renewable power solutions for data centres, said, “The digital expansion has made data centres integral to modern life. With the advent of AI, data centres’ power consumption is projected to increase from 853 MW in 2023 to 1,645 MW by 2026.”
Research firm CareEdge Ratings estimated that India’s data centre industry, then in a ‘growth phase’, would double its capacity to 2,000 MW by 2026.
Commercial real estate and investment firm CBRE, in a progress report in late 2023, suggested India’s data centre demand was led by fintech, healthcare, education, social media, as well as, content delivery. “The data centre segment’s accelerated growth is likely to continue over 2023-24, with nearly 500 MW currently under construction,” said the report.
Microsoft, Yotta Data Services, Atlassian, Equinix (working with Oracle Cloud), Amazon Web Services, and Google had outlined data centre plans for India.