Power Generation for IT Companies
When we talk about the future of tech and IT companies, we are so consumed by the potential of the ever-growing cloud that we often forget about the tangible physical assets that ground it.
All cloud operations from telecommunications, blockchain to internet functions, are based on information and numbers processed and stored on machines in large data centers around the world. These industrial-sized facilities house rows upon rows of computers that run on electricity 24/7. To manage the intense heat generated by the columns of supercomputers, data centers are fitted with industrial-grade cooling systems that fan the servers. Moreover, each one of these cooling systems is also powered by electricity.
As the tech industry continues to grow and digital processes form the bedrock to future businesses, a constant, reliable, and growing supply of power will continue to be in demand. With the world increasingly embracing digital evolution, industry leaders need to accept that data centers are some of the biggest energy consumers and that tech acceleration carries significant implications for the power sector.
The future of tech and power generation in the UAE
The UAE has long been at the forefront of innovation across many different industries where a growing abundance of data centers for IT and tech-based companies is driving exponential growth. According to Mordor Intelligence, the telecom industry has soared in the UAE in the last few years, especially with the rise in internet usage for Video on Demand and cloud computing. Perhaps the largest demand drivers in the data center market are the country's two telecommunication giants, Etisalat and Du.
Increasing mobile and internet subscriptions, innovative partnerships with banks, Expo 2020, and an increase in the numbers of future-oriented companies coming to the region, UAE's telecom giants have recently started operating out of their own data centers. This year, to meet the growing demand, Etisalat partnered with AI provider G42 to set up the UAE's largest data center. The joint venture, Khazna Data Centers, has 300 megawatts of capacity and is slated to become the backbone of business growth and a thriving digital ecosystem in the region.
And that is not all – the UAE is continuing to attract the market's interest. Microsoft and Amazon are soon opening their own exclusive data centers in the country. The demand for a sustainable and reliable source of power generation has never been higher.
The challenges
Traditionally, data centers have been powered by energy from burning fossil fuels such as coal and oil. Most data centers run at full capacity to keep the cloud afloat, extracting tremendous amounts of energy from the grid. A data center that requires 100 megawatts (amongst the largest in the world) uses the same amount of power needed by 80,000 U.S. households. And the data center running the world's largest blockchain — Ethereum — is powered by 33TWh of energy. That is equivalent to the total energy production of the state of Serbia. In total, the ICT ecosystem accounts for more than 2% of global emissions, putting it on par with the aviation industry's carbon footprint.
As the world begins committing to a Net-Zero emissions target (to which the UAE pledged just this year), we all need to accept that IT servers' current power generation system is an unsustainable model. Key players in the power sector need to address shortcomings to keep pace with their technology counterparts.
Paving sustainable ways forward
The good news is that there is a solution. The tech industry's rising demand for power generation is now a catalyst for a long-awaited change in the power sector. Around the world, a shift to tidal, solar, biomass, wind, geothermal, hydro-based, and nuclear power generation is underway. These energy sources allow the tech industry to innovate while causing minimal-to-zero damage to the environment.
But while the transition is far from complete, several alternatives can help mitigate the environmental cost of the cloud. This includes consolidating servers and data centers. Consolidated data centers use blade servers and larger disk drives for storage, which are much more efficient and reduce power consumption. Other solutions include optimizing cooling mechanisms and CPUs, minimizing idle equipment, and constantly measuring the efficiency of the IT equipment used in data centers.
With the UAE power sector's commitment to clean energy production and the tech industry's promise to innovate, we are currently at the heart of a green, interconnected future. Best practices in both industries go hand in hand, and there is no better place for their synergy than here.