Climate change needs IT, but at what cost?

cross post from ISIS blog

Mitigation strategies meant to address climate change often require new technologies, connectivity, and access to information in order to achieve their targets. Smart meters, smart grids, and energy efficiency buildings all rely heavily on information technology (IT) and communications as a means of reducing energy consumption and promoting or enabling energy conservation. Other mitigation strategies such as the dematerialization of goods and services (think e-books, e-services, and the proliferation of all things accessible through the web) also rely on IT, in particular the storage and computation of vast amounts of information. Facebook, Google, Amazon, and other IT players have many large data centres located around the globe providing continuous access to searching, information, and other online services (known as cloud computing). And by ‘large’, we mean ‘tremendously huge’. Apple’s new data centre, iDataCenter, is expected to use as much power as 80,000 US homes.

This shift towards the digital or information age enables a reduction in materials and resources, but consequently drives up the need for data centres and the energy required to operate them. A report released on Earth Day by Greenpeace describes the data centre as the factory of the century. In the same way that offshore manufacturing of goods has offloaded GHG emissions to developing countries, so too are individuals and businesses shifting GHG emissions to the cloud. The only way to ensure that there is a net reduction in GHG emissions from all sources is to ensure that data centres are supplied by renewable energy. As we noted in a previous blog, energy efficiency programs are not enough to secure a low-carbon future. Data centres must therefore be located near available sources of renewable energy to ensure that the energy consumed is clean, even as demand grows.

Coveted User

Data centres are an energy utility’s best friend; that is, if you are a coal powered or nuclear plant. Data centres consume a nearly constant supply of energy, creating the predictable 24/7 baseload that these plants desire. Traditionally data centre site selection, or ‘siting’, is evaluated based on three main criteria:

1. Reliable, low-cost source of power
2. Reliable telecommunications infrastructure with sufficient capacity
3. Minimal risks such as earthquakes, floods, civil unrest, etc

As such, energy utilities and the regions that house them offer data centres large tax incentives to build infrastructure investments in their region, creating a compelling financial case. Greenpeace’s report makes the strong case for including additional criteria when evaluating potential sites, in an effort to shift data centre construction to low-carbon regions:

1. Availability of and proximity to renewable energy sources; located away from coal and nuclear plants
2. Carbon shadow pricing

Data centre owners have the unique opportunity to spur new demand for renewable energy and shift policies both regionally and nationally. Data centres the size of Apple’s iDataCenter can force the issue, demonstrate leadership, and create investments in renewable energy sources. Just last year, Google created a subsidiary, Google Energy, that can buy and sell electricity, effectively allowing Google to act as it’s own energy utility. Google has since invested $100 Million in a joint venture to build a wind farm in Oregon, and last year signed a 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with a wind farm in Iowa . The electricity will not be used in their data centre; instead Google will resell the electricity and retire the renewable energy credits.

Welcome to Canada

It just so happens that many areas of Canada, notably certain regions of British Columbia and Quebec, meet the criteria outlined above. Renewable energy is abundant, telecommunication lines runs east-west across the country, and Canada is a safe place to invest. Canada, in particular British Columbia, has an opportunity to leverage the report published by Greenpeace and advocate for the location of data centres in regions such as BC, where renewable energy sources are abundant. ISIS has recently produced a similar report (link) discussing the opportunities of creating carbon neutral data centres through proper siting and the use of direct or indirect investments in renewable energy (RECs or green premiums).