Indonesia has recently been a hotspot for data center investment. According to market research by Arizton, the country is expected to bring in investments worth over USD 1 billion at an annual growth rate of 11 percent between 2019 and 2025.
Well-known technology companies including Google, Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, Alibaba and Tencent have already set up data centers in Indonesia, or have announced plans to do so. We can only expect more companies to follow in their footsteps.
Against this backdrop, can data centers be carbon-neutral, or even net carbon-negative? Are green data centers a paradoxical concept?
Data center operators are working to drive down energy consumption to advance sustainability in their facilities and decrease costs. One way is to invest in energy-efficient commercial chiller equipment that offers competitive energy performance and proven reliability. Smart buildings technology providers like Johnson Controls offer advanced chiller equipment, which uses low global warming potential refrigerant and is optimized to reduce average annual electricity consumption by 35 percent. To push the envelope further, data center providers could even consider harnessing free-cooling chiller solutions, which include evaporative cooling technologies for even better energy efficiency.
Using digital resources and analytics is another way to optimize energy usage. In a typical data center, the servers’ load will vary throughout the day. A smart solution to monitor the energy consumption patterns allows data center managers to configure the optimal use of their resources, as well as to identify and diagnose equipment problems and take proactive steps to fix them. In some cases, smart chillers can reduce unplanned and emergency repairs by as much as 66 percent.
It’s also time to challenge the convention of operating data centers at low temperatures of 20 degrees to 22 degrees Celsius. Evidence supports the running of data centers hotter than they currently are (by 1 or 2 degree without any significant sacrifices in system reliability - and reap up to 5 percent savings in power consumption for chillers.
Sustainable energy sources should be considered to power data centers, wherever possible.
Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati projects the digital economy in Indonesia could increase to US$124 billion by 2025. Coupled with the government’s “Making Indonesia 4.0” roadmap which will put Indonesia among the top ten global economies by 2030, we can see the tremendous potential that the country has. By implementing digital transformation in various industries, this will inevitably drive the need for more data centers.
Source: The Jakarta Post
July 26, 2021
