In our connected world, where sharing data and information is essential for both businesses and individuals, data centres are the backbone of digitalisation: they are the repository of most data online and the home of the "cloud". Digitalisation involves the exchange of enormous amounts of data: every smartphone, smart home, smart factory and internet user contributes to data multiplication and exponential growth of processed data. At the same time, data centres are increasingly under public scrutiny due to their high energy consumption. This study analyses the role that data centres play in the digital ecosystem and looks at it from a holistic, sustainable perspective. Several ways to increase data centre energy efficiency are also being explored.

Read the study: Sustainability of data centres(PDF, 380 KB, non-accessible)

Authors: Maxi Harm, Paula Hollekamp, Pavlena Rangelova-Werner, Infrastructure department of KfW IPEX-Bank

Published: February 2023