Can data centres be built and operated responsibly?

18 Feb Can data centres be built and operated responsibly?

(Oilandgaspress) -] As demand for data centres grows, a new project will explore how they can be developed with lower peak power demand, better heat recovery, smarter grid integration and reduced impact on the environment. Yesterday marked the kick-off of GreenDC, a new knowledge-building project that brings research scientists and industry together to tackle the challenge of making data centres more sustainable.

Project lead Hanne Kauko traced GreenDC back to earlier research efforts on cooling and surplus heat utilisation dating back to 2016. While several projects have explored these topics over the years, few have resulted in implementation. GreenDC goes a step further by including issues that have become increasingly central in recent years. In addition to cooling efficiency and heat recovery, the project addresses grid impacts, peak power demand, land use and environmental considerations.

Kauko acknowledged that public debate around data centres often centres on high energy use and unclear societal value. She noted that even surplus heat recovery can sometimes appear more like a justification for grid access than a real priority. At the same time, she emphasised that data centres are indispensable for health services, transport, energy systems and digital infrastructure. The question, she argued, is not whether Norway needs data centres, but how they can be developed responsibly. Sustainability, she stressed, cannot be reduced to CO₂ emissions or power usage effectiveness (PuE) – the main sustainability metric for data centres; it must also include flexibility, grid strain, heat utilisation and impact on the environment.

Modern data centres are no longer quiet server rooms hidden in office basements. They are, as Verne CTO Tate Cantrell put it, “information factories”: high-density, liquid-cooled facilities designed for AI and advanced computing, operating at power levels that would once have been unthinkable. In Norway, expansion plans point towards capacities of 100 megawatts and more, and in some regions multiple operators are clustering within a few kilometres of each other. The scale alone raises a question: as computing power increases, how should responsibility scale with it?

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