We live in a world of rapidly development. Advanced technology offers many benefits, such as streamlining healthcare and making information and education more widely available – both of which are key to transforming low-income countries. But have you ever considered the cost our world is paying to modernize?
Powering Data
It takes a lot of power to run this data-driven world of ours. In fact, data centers alone use 2% of the world’s electricity. It might not sound like much, but corporations such as Google and IBM use as much electricity as entire countries. Most of it is used to power data centers.
In 2023, the global power consumption of data centers was approximately 524 TWh. This consumption is projected to increase to 1743 TWh by 2030.
– Yusuf Sar, writing for Forbes
Power infrastructure around the world is scrambling to increase in order to meet this rising demand – which had been experiencing a slight decrease in the last decades, due to efforts at energy optimization an efficiency. In order to meet the projected 2030 demands, the CO₂ emissions from our current global power mix would exceed 800 million tons. And that tonnage does not include producing the more than 55 million servers that will be needed. Furthermore, consider that those servers’ live cycle is only 2-3 years before they will be replaced with new units.
Environmental impacts don’t stop with CO₂, either. Copper, for example, is essential for wiring data centers. Usually extracted through open-pit mining, copper mines have devastating effects on the environment. Theses massive pits can reach almost a mile in diameter (1.6 km) and thousands of feet deep, and their construction requires significant deforestation, causing death and displacement to wildlife, and rapid soil erosion. Furthermore, for every 1 ton of copper extracted, there are 99 tons of waste material. Water pollution from that waste is common, which can then permeate the local groundwater, impacting the entire local ecosystem. Last year (2023), the demand for copper reached 241,000 tons; in 2030, it is expected to reach 623,000 tons.
Water is another resource necessary to data centers. In fact, from 2021 – 2022, Microsoft data centers’ global water usage increased by 34%, and Google’s by 20%. Why water? Data centers are massive buildings filled with racks of servers, all of which produce a lot of heat as they run, and if they are not cooled sufficiently, they will overheat and fail and could even catch fire. To prevent this, many companies choose evaporative cooling, as it is generally cheaper than electric air conditioning.
A large data center, researchers say, can gobble up anywhere between 1 million and 5 million gallons of water a day …
Shannon Osaka, writing for The Washington Post
Building Tomorrow
Powering the data centers of tomorrow is a concern the world over. But for countries like The Gambia, who lists building a Tier 4 data center among its national goals, it is a nuanced problem. A top-of-the-line data center requires a massive amount of power, and with only 65.4% of households with electricity, prioritizing is a delicate business. Currently, most electricity in The Gambia comes from diesel generators – the fuel for which is imported. Brown- and blackouts are frequent, and most can expect only 12 – 15 hours of power a day.
Planning is a major part of building infrastructure, and choices will have to be made about where to prioritize the use of electrical power. There is no easy answer. On the one hand, powering family homes could raise the standard of living and help ease food insecurity; powering sanitation facilities and hospitals would improve Gambian health. But improving Gambian access to secure and expanded data services would improve economic initiatives across all industries, would improve Gambians’ access to life-changing information from education to health services – including hPods, which are a data-driven initiative to bring primary healthcare to those most in need. The undertaking is massive, and The Gambia is exploring options that include wave and river generated power as well as wind and solar – even biomass energy, which converts organic waste into fuel. As the global demand for power continues to rise, nations of all sizes and economies are being pressed to solve these same riddles. Perhaps continuing innovation and the wide variety of possibilities, from copper recycling to hydroelectric power to optimizing power use, will bring our world into a more advanced and healthier future.
Resources:
How Does Copper Mining Affect the Environment? | Calgary
Renewable Energy | Department of Energy
Access to electricity (% of population) – Gambia, The | Data