Consumers and businesses are expected to generate twice as much data in the next five years as all the data created over the past 10 years. The rise of AI (artificial intelligence) and other technologies will change the way we build homes, cities, and infrastructure. Perhaps the most obvious example of this is at the data center.
Data centers are built with different requirements than conventional facilities and may require contractors and operators to plan, design, and allocate power resources based on the type of data processed or stage of generative AI development. Maybe we should look at what comes next for data centers.
JLL recently published a new report Data Centers 2024 Global Outlook, narrowing in specifically on how the data centers need to be designed, operated, and sourced. Here is what it found.
With the fast growth of AI, data center storage capacity is expected to grow from 10.1 zettabytes in 2023 to 21 zettabytes in 2027. This represents a five-year compound annual growth rate of 18.5%. Certainly, this means we will need more data centers in general, but it also means generative AI’s greater energy requirements—ranging from 300 to 500+ megawatts—will also require more energy efficient designs and locations.
Sustainability at the Data Center
As this happens, sustainability will be key. The report suggests, since cooling typically accounts for roughly 40% of an average data center’s electricity use, operators are shifting from traditional air-based cooling methods to liquid cooling. Providers have shown that liquid cooling provides substantial power reductions—as high as 90%—while improving capability and space requirements.
This is something Peggy Smedley has written about several times here on this blog, suggesting we need greater innovation around data centers, as it relates to renewable energy and sustainability.
For contractors and operators, it becomes a two-pronged approach. First, we need to be more efficient with the data centers we already have. Second, we need to keep future requirements in mind as we build the data center of tomorrow.
The Global Need
Real estate leaders have an opportunity to fuel a more sustainable data center for the future—and the need today couldn’t be greater. Let’s consider this from a global perspective for a minute.
The JLL report suggests in Europe one-third of the grid infrastructure is more than 40 years old, requiring an estimated €584 billion of investment by 2030 to meet the European Union’s green goals. The time is now to address this.
Here in the United States, to meet energy transition goals to upgrade the grid and feed more renewable energy into the power supply, we will need an estimated $2 trillion. Certainly, the United States and Europe aren’t the only examples either.
Looking to Singapore, the government enacted a moratorium to temporarily halt construction in certain regions to carefully review new data center proposals and ensure alignment with the country’s sustainability goals.
This is a global challenge and opportunity. Data centers’ rapid growth is putting pressure on limited energy resources in many countries. Many organizations will need to come together to solve this. It will require collaboration among the construction community, government, academia, and tech to move us forward toward more sustainable computing power.
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