Environmental and Economical Assessment for Net Zero Energy Data Centres

Salom, Jaume, Oró, E, Rudolf, V Garcia A, Shrestha, N L, Urbaneck, T, Timmerman, M, Camara, O, Carrera, A

EuroSun 2016 · Palma de Mallorca, Spain · 2016-10-11
Published by International Solar Energy Society (ISES)
DOI: 10.18086/eurosun.2016.01.19

Abstract

During the last years, the rapid increase of cloud computing, high-powered computing and the vast growth in internet use have aroused the interest in energy consumption and carbon footprint of data centres. The paper presents the results of an environmental and economic analysis to explore the path towards Net Zero Energy data centres. The economic and environmental assessment is presented for different data centre sizes (120 and 400 kWIT of design IT power) and climate locations (Barcelona and Stockholm). It is the result of detailed TRNSYS simulations which have been developed in the framework of the European project RenewIT. Total cost of ownership and non-renewable primary energy consumption are used as main metrics to evaluate the performance of different energy concepts, energy efficiency strategies and the implementation of renewables, in particular PV and wind energy. Parametric analyses are presented to evaluate the influence of some of the main sizing variables for each concept.

Keywords

Net zero energy data centres, Renewable energy, Energy efficiency, Cost-benefit analysis

← All proceedings papers