With the boom in AI data centres across the globe, there is no doubt that industry players are going to need to find fresh and innovative ways to sustainably meet their needs for land, power, water and other resources.
As data centres swiftly grow and harness ever more of these resources, rules and regulations are tightening on their use, while reputational pressure on data centre operators to mitigate the impact of facilities is only going to intensify.
Concerns mean it is becoming increasingly difficult to secure permits for building, potentially taking years. Indeed, Veolia, a global environmental services company specialising in water, waste and energy management, estimates that nearly half of all planned or under-construction facilities could face delays or restrictions.
Breaking with tradition
Making progress in future may rely on breaking out of traditional ways of thinking, with data centre providers seeking to roll out facilities more in harmony with the local environment and resources to improve project acceptance.
“Data centre operators need to shift their mindset from having isolated infrastructure to having infrastructure integrated with the ecosystem,” says Ann Feng, data centre market director at Veolia. “Their focus should change from just looking at areas where land is available to seeing where land, power, water availability and community acceptance are aligned.”
Veolia, which aims to bring environmental security to communities and businesses across a whole range of industry sectors, from pharmaceuticals to mining, believes it is ideally placed to help data centre operators transition to such approaches. This is because it already has the infrastructure to support green strategies in the fields of energy, water, waste and overall sustainability in different locations and communities.
“We have a unique position in being able to provide an integrated offer to data centres in all these areas, not just a single solution,” says Feng. “That can help data centre players when they try to get permits, as well as improve their image.”
360-degree view
Seizing on this opportunity, Veolia has just launched a new global offer for the market called Data Center Resource 360. Through an all-in-one offering, this is designed to turn data centres into carbon-neutral, water-positive, circular hubs that support local ecosystems via strategies from waste heat recovery to advanced water treatment and recycling.
The company is not coming at the sector afresh, but has already established a strong international track record – working at more than 100 data centres worldwide alongside the industry’s 10 leading operators.
One major hyperscaler with which Veolia is working is AWS, with which it has just unveiled an initiative to reduce water use and boost water reuse in the internet giant’s growing data centre operations in Mississippi.
Using the likes of autonomous containerised treatment systems to transform effluent from nearby wastewater treatment plants and other sources into water for data centre cooling, this is expected to eventually see the reuse of more than 80 million gallons of potable water each year.
Feng explains that the initiative’s mobile wastewater treatment units can be deployed based on seasonal trends, with more used to meet higher demand in the drier summer months. This means they do not all need to be used year-round, saving on both resources and costs.
Creative thinking
“This could be a very innovative way to help the industry,” says Feng, emphasising the need to stay creative and think in line with what may work for particular communities’ needs.
Partnering with the likes of Veolia can also make environmental needs in multiple different areas far easier for a data centre operator to handle than dealing with each separately.
And the company sees a promising road ahead for such integrated data centre approaches, valuing the global market for these at about $5 billion annually by 2030. Veolia hopes to drive this forward, aided by the experience and footprint it has already acquired.
“We’re very familiar with local municipalities, and understand the needs of local people and their surroundings,” says Feng. “We can help partners think about how they contribute not only to the AI economy, but also the environment and societies.”
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