The North American data center market is becoming increasingly complex. As an industry, many companies are building new data centers to meet the ever-increasing demand for services and bandwidth. However, there are more forces at work here than just the demand for computing power. There is also a push to reduce our environmental impact, which has led some companies and governments to regulate how data centers are built.
North America Datacenter Regulation
Contrary to popular belief, many environmental concerns surrounding data center construction are unrelated to energy usage or power consumption. While this is undoubtedly an issue that should be addressed, other factors can cause more direct harm to local ecosystems. In addition, some organizations have taken this push toward sustainability too far and implemented restrictions that hinder businesses' growth.
The key to understanding these issues lies in understanding their history. Let's look at how we got here by examining the history of data center regulation in North America.
North America's data center regulation is fragmented, with each state having individual requirements. The Federal Energy Management Program in the United States sets guidelines for federal agencies (including the military and the Department of Energy) to reduce energy consumption in their facilities by using more green technologies.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers mandates water efficiency and recycling practices in all its facilities, including data centers. However, more than national-level regulation is needed for commercial data center operators.
The North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) is an independent agency that sets critical standards for how electricity should be transmitted between regions to maintain stability and security of supply throughout the continent.
NERC issues many Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) Reliability Standards that apply to data centers in support of this mission, including those that require data centers to maintain a certain level of reliability by using backup power systems such as uninterruptible power supplies or battery systems.
Additionally, NERC has issued standards on disaster recovery and business continuity planning for data centers. However, NERC does not regulate data center design or operations; instead, it focuses on basic rules and infrastructure at a regional level.
Environmental Impacts
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued new legislation requiring the reduction of power consumption for data centers based in North America by at least 20% by 2020. The EPA claims that this reduction will prevent up to 5 million tons of CO2 emissions per year, as well as prevent further damage to the ozone layer.
Strong utility regulation and a stable infrastructure will be required to meet this goal, but if successful, it could lead to an increase in efficiency and a reduction in costs. These reductions will inevitably positively impact smaller data centers in terms of environmental impact and cost savings; however, the larger players in the industry may suffer challenges due to increased overhead costs in their existing infrastructure.
The EPA's announcement also strongly focuses on data center recycling and the reuse of scrap material. To this end, several state-level initiatives are being introduced which require large data centers to provide waste disposal services for customers who use them. This is expected to drive up costs for larger players in the industry while providing more options for small businesses to reduce their carbon footprint.
The industry can vote with its dollars by choosing facilities that go above and beyond for their energy efficiency and emissions levels. It is also important that as more environmentally-friendly practices become available, they are adopted by companies within the industry. For example, geothermal energy generation has sometimes been used as an alternative power source. However, it has yet to be widely implemented due to its higher cost than traditional methods.
Read more about: Canada net zero carbon
Conclusion
Data centers' environmental impact and regulation in North America have been growing issues in recent years. While legislation has been enacted attempting to mitigate the environmental impact of data centers, the data centers remain largely unregulated. There are several steps that data center owners can take to bring awareness to these issues.
Datacenter owners should raise awareness about the environmental impacts of data centers and the lack of regulations by collaborating with other industry professionals and hosting conferences or workshops for environmentally-focused organizations.
Finally, consumers need to know how their data is stored so that they can increase pressure on data center providers to reduce emissions and improve efficiency. North American datacenter can do it through research into data centers' practices or through outside advocacy groups such as Greenpeace or Friends of the Earth.
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