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Artificial intelligence (AI) requirements are boosting
the installation of data centres all around the world. Can they adapt to
climate change and how can standards help?
How will data centres fare in harsh climate conditions?
In 2022, the London data centres of two US tech
giants failed as cooling systems broke down during a heat wave, which
saw temperatures hit 40 °C. In the US, data centre operators in Florida, a
region prone to hurricanes and tornadoes, are building greater resilience into
buildings to protect against increasingly common severe weather events.
Data centres (DCs) house the essential compute power and
storage for all range of consumer, commercial and public services. Some
governments have deemed them critical national infrastructure.
Without data centres, entire sectors, from banking and medicine to scientific
research, would collapse. While these giant servers have generally been built
to withstand cyber attacks, the risks posed by natural disasters and extremes
of weather due to climate change may not have been sufficiently factored in.
Data centre gold rush
The World Economic Forum describes a global data centre
gold rush, citing estimates that the industry will more than double
in value between now and 2032 to USD 584 billion. DC expansion in the UK, for
instance, is set to grow by a fifth, with another 100 facilities expected
to be built over the next few years as the rise of AI increases the need for
processing power.
This is changing the location of data centres, as industries
and countries seek to build capacity in AI processing, which in turn
incurs outsized demands on energy to power servers and cooling systems. Goldman
Sachs forecasts global power demand from data centres will increase 50% by
2027 and by as much as 165% by the end of this decade.
While the US overwhelmingly dominates the global data centre
market (calculated to host 45% of the world’s DCs or 5 426 DCs reported
in March 2025), there are marked increases in investment in places such as
Thailand, Kenya, Brazil, the UAE, India and Singapore. The DC market in Europe
is growing at nearly 7% a year, especially in countries like Sweden and
Denmark. They are becoming emerging hubs for more sustainable data centres
relying on renewable energy to operate.
Likewise, Bangkok and the corridor to Chonburi, 100 km
southeast of the capital, are “rapidly becoming one of Southeast Asia’s most
dynamic data centre markets”, according to a new report. With total IT
capacity now exceeding 2,5 gigawatts (GW), it ranks as the region’s
second-largest market after the Malaysian state of Johor.
Concerns about severe weather are growing
While pundits expect investments in new DCs to increasingly
focus on sustainability, energy efficiency and scalability, there is a
heightened concern about the ability of critical infrastructure to survive
incidents such as wildfires, floods and record-high temperatures, which now
plague most countries around the world.
A 2021 survey reported that 45% of US data centres
had experienced an extreme weather event that threatened their continuous
operation. The same survey revealed that nearly 90% of stakeholders believed
climate change and weather-related events would increase the cost of DC
infrastructure and operations over the next decade. “Data centres, the
lifeblood of our digital world, are at the frontline of the climate
crisis,” states one financial services consultancy. “Their enormous
energy consumption, reliance on water and vulnerability to extreme weather
events make them a critical concern for environmental sustainability.”
Data centre providers and consultancies are putting
contingency plans for severe weather events at the top of their agenda. One of
them advises management teams on how to prepare for tornadoes,
hurricanes and ice storms.
Extreme weather events “can cause significant structural
damage to buildings,” it warns. “This can lead to prolonged power outages and
data loss. Wind and storms cause excess dust and debris in the air, which can
contaminate equipment and cooling systems.”
The water conundrum
Perhaps the most alarming threat to DC sustainability is
that posed by rising and consistently occurring high temperatures. The threat
is twofold. Increased external temperatures necessitate more water to cool the
server systems within the data centre. This demand is exacerbated by potential
water scarcity as a result of drought conditions. Regions already grappling
with water scarcity, such as California, are particularly susceptible to this
issue. The energy used to power systems like air conditioning is not only
financially costly but rips holes in the industry’s carbon reduction targets.
To combat this, one US-based data centre provider says
it is designing its facilities “with 50-year weather extremes in mind”. This
includes expanding the operating temperature ranges of its facilities at the
same time as using less power. In pilot projects, it says it has moved
operating temperatures closer to 80 °F (27 °C) versus the industry average of
72 °F (22 °C). “Operating our data centres in a higher temperature range
enables us to use less energy for cooling, adapt to changing weather conditions
and reduce the risk of outages.”
The pros and cons of liquid and immersion cooling
Other solutions include liquid and immersion cooling. Liquid
cooling, according to a US data centre consultancy, is a system that
circulates a cooling fluid (often water mixed with additives) through a closed
loop to absorb heat from high-temperature devices. DCs implement more complex
versions of the system, known as direct-to-chip cooling, where water or other specialized
fluids directly contact cold plates attached to critical chips. While using
these solutions remains a problem in areas where water is scarce, these methods
are more energy efficient than air for cooling.
Immersion cooling, according to this market researcher,
involves submerging hardware in thermally conductive, dielectric fluids. This
liquid absorbs and dissipates heat directly from the components to reduce
energy consumption and lower operational costs.
Water and specialized liquids have a higher specific heat
capacity than air, meaning they can absorb more heat before experiencing a
temperature rise. This allows more efficient heat transfer, enabling hardware
to run at lower temperatures.
Both methods are, however, more complex than cooling by air.
Liquid cooling involves a system of “pumps, pipes, plates and coolant
reservoirs” according to the consultancy. “Each piece of hardware can fail,
potentially leading to leaks or downtime,” it says. In addition, the fluid can
“become contaminated or evaporate over time”, making management problematic.
Immersion cooling is considered the more “radical” approach
but also one that “removes heat more effectively” than other systems because
the fluid uniformly and comprehensively surrounds every surface.
On the debit side, dielectric fluids “can be significantly
more expensive than water”, so if temperatures rise, putting more demand on the
amount of fluid, “costs can escalate quickly”. Replacing the fluid over time
“can represent a substantial cost”.
While immersion cooling systems can reduce operational costs
due to lower energy consumption, getting access to any part of the server which
is submerged in fluid is challenging since “operators need different procedures
for installation, cable management, maintenance and upgrades”.
What standards for data centres?
International standards and guidance are produced by an
ISO/IEC subcommittee which is part of both organizations’ joint committee on
information technology. ISO/IEC JTC 1/ SC 39 prepares standards which
help to assess methods, design practices, operation and management aspects to
support resource efficiency, resilience and environmental sustainability for
data centres.
ISO/IEC 22237-2 specifies requirements and
recommendations for the construction of data centres including location and
site selection which takes in to account the natural environment and protection
from environmental risks. It specifically details guidance for physical fire
protection and protection against damage from water.
ISO/IEC TS 22237-31 defines key performance indicators
(KPIs) for resilience, dependability, fault tolerance and availability
tolerance for data centres. This document also covers the data centre
infrastructure of power distribution and supply, and environmental control, and
provides examples for calculating these KPIs for analytical comparison of
different DCs. This will be replaced in the coming months with an updated
document, ISO/IEC DTS 22237-31.
The international standard ISO/IEC TS 22237-30 specifies
requirements and recommendations for risk assessments to be employed concerning
seismic activity and earthquakes in relation to data centres. In addition, it
describes design concepts that can be employed as mitigation within the
construction and other design elements of DCs. ISO/IEC 21836 specifies
a measurement method to assess and report the energy effectiveness of a
computer server.
All these standards are essential for data centres to mitigate climate change and for the market to continue growing in line with new digital and AI-related demands.
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