The energy consumption in the IT sector
Today the global usage of electric power by the IT industry is staggering 210 terra watt-hours (TWh) (210 billion watt-hours), and the analyst's prediction for 2025 ranges from 353 TWh to 1000 TWh.
This wide span in prediction shows clearly that the expected growth is enormous. But at the same time, the analysts are very divided, and it seems like pure guessing. The real numbers for the IT industry is probably much bigger and we are kept in the dark by lack of transparency.
The question is how we can grow the IT services and at the same time reduce the emission of greenhouse gases and reach our goals.
Whats to come
By 2025 data-centers and friends will consume 1/5 of the worlds electric power supply and it is growing.
By 2025 every person in the western world will have an interaction with a data center every 18 second for the rest of the life.
Organic waste is set to increase by 33% by 2030. Reaching 2,1 billion tons per year and worth about $1,5 trillion.
If organic waste was a country it would be the 3rd biggest polluting country in the world generating 10% GHG emissions.
Time for a change
Change
Climate change is affecting us all. Greenhouse gasses is a well known and accepted contributor to this fact. Data centres comprises thousands of servers and are huge electricity consumers and a major negative contributors to carbon neutrality.
Energy use
According to the International Energy Agency, data centres consume approximately 200 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity. Estimates for the power used by data centres shortly range from 353 TWh to 1,000 TWh in 2025.
Emissions
Over the life of a server, about 75% to 80% of the GHG emissions can be attributed to running the systems in a data center, rest 20-25% is related to production, transport and handling the E- waste after end of life. This environmental cost also need to be calculated into day to day operation.
In our humble opinion, finding more efficient ways to waste has never been a solution, only means to an end.