The document outlines a decade-long collaborative effort to improve energy resource efficiency within the data center industry, highlighting key phases such as passive and active energy efficiency improvements. It emphasizes the increasing demand for data due to technological advancements and the need for data centers to optimize renewable energy usage while reducing CO2 emissions. Future initiatives will focus on enhancing resource efficiency through ongoing R&D projects and partnerships among industry stakeholders.

1. A leading industry
for smarter energy
Data Center Resource Efficiency:
a 10-year collaborative effort
D
ata centers are commonly regarded as large consumers of resources,
particularly energy. To support a tremendous increase in demand for data,
however, the data center industry has been pro-active in addressing the
challenge of resource efficiency working together with standards organizations and
government bodies. Over the last decade, their collaborative effort to improve
resource efficiency has followed 3 steps:
Step 1
Step 2
Step 3
2000s
2010s
Today
Improving
the efficiency of data
center components,
also known as passive
energy efficiency.
Improving
the efficiency of data
centers as a whole,
so-called active energy
efficiency.
Active management:
with software and new
technologies, data centers have
become key to increasing
and optimizing the use of
renewable energy sources.

2. Our challenge
The development of tomorrow’s digital economy (e-health, e-education, smart
cities, big data, etc.) is crucially dependent on having reliable data centers to
support its 24/7 applications.
• Meeting an increasing demand for data…
The surge in the number of smart phones and the development of the Internet of
Things mean that data traffic is set to increase 50-fold by 2050.
• …while consuming fewer resources and reducing our CO2
emissions
Energy consumption by the digital sector already accounts for 10% of world
electricity consumption and this is expected to double in the next 15 years. Data
centers are responsible for a quarter of this consumption.
Through its climate and energy package, which builds on the international
commitments made under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, the EU aims to:
- reduce energy consumption and CO2
emissions by 20%
- increase the use of renewable energy to 20%
…by 2020.
A collaborative effort
Improvements in the resource
efficiency of data centers have been
achieved over the past decade thanks
to close and productive cooperation
between industry actors, standards
organizations and government
bodies.
The 3 steps to Data Center Resource Efficiency
Over the last 10 years, efforts to improve the resource efficiency of data centers
has followed 3 steps:
• Step 1: passive energy efficiency
Passive energy efficiency focuses on improving the efficiency of data center
components such as uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) and servers. Responding
to regulations and incentives, infrastructure providers have developed new product
designs that meet their clients’ demand for eco-friendliness and increased
competitiveness. As a result, in 2015 UPS efficiency reached 95%, from an initial
85% in the 1990s.
• Step 2: active energy efficiency
Active energy efficiency seeks to improve the efficiency of data centers as a
whole, taking advantage of modularity, natural conditions (free cooling) and
virtualization to mitigate the natural-resource consumption of data centers. The
data center industry has set up various alliances to work together on better data
center management and on implementing best practice in order to mitigate CO2
emissions. For example, modular UPS achieve 98% efficiency compared to 92%
with standalone systems. While 75 standalone servers account for 35,325 watts,
one R810 running 75 VMs (i.e. the equivalent computing power) consumes only
6,120 watts, one sixth of the power.
Specifically, the Commission aims to ensure that 80%
of the energy consumed by data centers comes
from renewable energy sources by 2030.
Standardization
Main Standards
Organizations
(ISO, IEC, ITU)
Government
bodies
Issue directives
and regulations
Industry
Alliances
Produce tools,
materials
Gimélec
A few initiatives:
• Codes of conduct developed with the European Commission’s Joint
Research Center (UPS, broadband equipment)
• Compliance with the EPA’s Energy Star programs (UPS, servers)
• Product Environmental Footprint pilot programs with the European
Commission (UPS)
• ErP projects with the Commission (Lot 9: Servers; Lot 27: UPS)
A few initiatives:
• Creation of consortia to develop metrics and best practice to improve
resource efficiency (The Green Grid, Digital Europe)
• Data center Code of conduct with the European Commission’s Joint
Research Center (2008)
• Data center working groups on how to capture carbon emissions,
managed by the Commission
• Projects co-funded by the European Commission (Games, Fit4Green,
All4Green, CoolEmAll)
1
2

3. 6 ongoing RD projects:
• DC4Cities,
• GreenDataNet,
• Geyser,
• Genic,
• Renew IT,
• Dolfin.
Energy providers
Fossil + Renewable
Customers
Data Centers
Network
Reuse of Heat
Energy management
Workload management
Service contracts
Service contracts
Data Center
Operators
www.gimelec.fr – @Gimelec
3
• Step 3: active management
Towards smart integration: the central role of the data center
The development of smart cities will increase the need for data. In this context,
data centers will play a key role in improving resource efficiency. Federating data
centers will enable transfer of useful work from one data center to another to
help manage and balance the use of renewable energy sources. This will be made
possible by implementing services contracts between the various actors in the
ecosystem: utilities, operators, telecommunications companies and customers.
Heat re-use will also be developed whenever possible. This is the route being taken
by the various ongoing RD projects co-funded by the European Commission.
Next steps
The data center industry, together with standards organizations and government
bodies, will continue developing initiatives aimed at improving resource efficiency.
Besides RD projects in the field of data centers and smart cities, several other
projects are either in progress or about to start. This will help stakeholders
improve the procurement, operation, design, and recycling of data centers, with
the ultimate goal of reducing carbon emissions and water consumption.
Set up in 2014, Gimélec’s Data Centers Market Committee brings together 8
infrastructure providers which aim to work together on the data center market,
develop their technical ability to improve the resource efficiency of data centers
and raise the profile of the data center industry. Its member companies are ABB
France, Eaton Industries, Emerson Network Power SAS, Legrand, Rittal SAS,
Schneider Electric France, Siemens and Socomec.
Contact: André Rouyer – arouyer@gimelec.fr