The regulatory ripple effect: How policy is reshaping the data center landscape

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Data centers play A significant role In energy consumption, water to use And carbon shows, contributing has THE sustainability issue cause by THE exponential growth of data. As THE request For accelerated digital transformation increase, THE environmental impact of data collection, storage, cloud calculate, And artificial intelligence (AI) deployment becomes A concern.

However, with different rules In miscellaneous jurisdictions, What do This mean For THE future of THE industry? In A recent discussion, data center expert John Stand, manager director of Advice Carbone3IT, provided knowledge on emerging regulations And how they can remodel Or workloads are located.

Europe has long has been has THE foreground of efforts has reduce energy to use And emissions. HAS accomplish This, THE European union (EU.) pass A update Energy Efficiency Directive (DEED) In THE summer of 2023. Below THE redesign directive, data centers In THE EU. with installed HE power of more that 100 kilowatts will need has publicly report energy performance.

Stand Remarks THE EU. had implemented A voluntary Coded of To drive For data center efficiency For more that 14 years, but adoption stayed weak. Only around 550 facilities representative A estimated 140 organizations to have participated has date. "Part of THE issue was lack of monitoring And No real enforcement," said Stand.

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Seeing This as A walk failure, THE EU. pass THE FEDEM has mandate report of energy consumption Since big data centers. Facilities must provide metric as total energy to use, renewable energy percentage, water consumption And waste heat reuse has A central register.

"Part of THE generally registration piece will not just be THE metric that are required, but Also a few information on how You are In fact TO DO your energy efficiency And energy optimization projects," said Stand. This will give regulators visibility In current performance And opportunities For improvement.

Once Baseline data East collection, Stand waits THE EU. will SO encourage further discounts through subsidies Or penalties. Data centers with A Power Use Efficiency (PUE) on 1.5, For example, can confront fines until that metric East lowered. Others can receive funds has install more effective equipment.

Stand believes regulations will inevitably become global as concerns on AI energy requests to grow. THE WE. has taken initial steps.

Several WE. States are Also execution more strict regulations. In Virginia, on hold laws to focus on carbon reduction And sustainability through more strict requirements. In the same way, Oregon has propose reduce carbon broadcasts 60% by 2027 For data centers And cryptocurrency mining, imposing fines For noncompliance.

THE White Home Desk of Science And Technology Policy published A report In 2022 on THE energy impacts of cryptocurrency that find consumption comparable has conventional data centers. This raised THE question of Also regulator traditional flatsharing facilities. In answer, Senator Sheldon Whiteho....