- Report the complaint data centers and the aviation industry represent 3% each of the world carbon emissions
- By 2026, the world data centers will use as much electricity as Japan
- Germany obliges very effective data centers from 2026
The increase in the activity of artificial intelligence has led to the demarcation of the demand for data centers, the new research of Sphotonix affirming that the facilities now explain the same number of emissions as the world aviation industry.
From now on, representing 3% of world carbon emissions, the concern is that IA and IoT will continue to strengthen the environmental impact of data centers, and by 2030, they could consume up to 13% of world electricity.
Sphotonix claims that 149 zettabytes (ZB) of data were created in 2024 – After only four years, this annual figure could reach 394ZB, approximately 2.6x more.
Data centers related to increasing emissions
Quantifying concerns, Sphotonix revealed that the data centers are currently consuming 460 TWh per year, but in just 2026, this could more than double at 1000TWh, which is almost the same as the total energy consumption of Japan. At the end of the decade, these sites could represent 2.5 billion metric tonnes of CO2.
Research plunges into different types of storage and reveals that storage of the hard disk used for the storage of long -term data and archiving in fact continue more data – in order to maintain these hard drives at low temperature for data preservation and stimulates health, large amounts of energy are necessary. Cold storage and archiving represent approximately three -fifths of all data stored today.
Hard drives also tend to have a shorter lifespan than SSDs, which means that they must be copied every seven to 10 years, which is done to the detriment of high energy consumption and CO2 emissions.
“In an increasingly digital world, the environmental impact of data storage quickly becomes an urgent concern with the respective governments and the regulatory organizations involved to enforce sustainability standards,” said Science Director of Sphotonix, Peter Kazansky.
Kazansky has added that Germany will require that new data centers obtain an efficiency in the use of electricity of 1.2 or less compared to next year.
“Reliable data management plays an essential role in the statement of energy challenges, allowing effective allocation of resources and long -term planning,” concluded Kazansky.
