In Finland Google has built what may be the world’s greenest data center. Learn how technology can make your business run in a more sustainable way and help to fight climate change by using a cloud infrastructure and platform that provides zero CO2 footprint for your IT.
As the world’s data usage continues to grow exponentially it’s more important than ever to reduce power consumption in the global cloud data centers. Common people may not be aware of the amount of power it takes to run data centers, the cloud data centers that support our work efficiency and make our daily lives more convenient than ever.
On average, servers and cooling systems account for the greatest shares of electricity use in data centers. The power consumption distributes like this:
43% – Cooling and power provision systems
43% – Servers
11% – Storage
3% – Network devices
Intelligent and innovative technology solutions create concrete, tangible impacts that benefit the business, people and society, and the planet alike. Efficient data centers serve Google Cloud users in a more sustainable way.
- Highly efficient servers
- Energy efficient Google Cloud Artificial Intelligence, TPUs (Tensor Processing Unit)
- Innovative water sourcing
- Artificial Intelligence cooling system
It is obvious that immediate actions must be taken everywhere on our planet as all the recent reports indicate that the last years have been the hottest since record keeping started 140 years ago. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) stated in its report in 2018 that there are 12 years left to turn the fight against global warming around.
Data-driven innovation
BigQuery, Cloud Storage, Cloud Dataflow, Cloud ML Engine and Cloud SQL are some of the Google Cloud tools that help industry sectors to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to meet their sustainability goals. These technologies empower users to make smart decisions that have a positive impact for the environment everyday.
Retail
Use Google BigQuery to analyze large data sets to help forecast demand and reduce inventory waste.
Transport
Use BigQuery and Cloud SQL to carefully manage the data of their fleet in real time to contribute to the decarbonization of the transport sector.
Agriculture
Use Google Cloud to access data-driven insights that help farmers to boost yield, avoid blights, and cultivate crops more efficiently.
Energy & utilities
Use Cloud Data Analytics to offer real-time energy consumption data to energy managers, helping them make decisions that reduce costs and CO2 footprint.
Data with zero greenhouse gas emissions
Let us look to Finland to learn how technology can make your business run in a more sustainable way and help to fight climate change by using a cloud infrastructure and platform that provides zero CO2 footprint for your IT.
In March 2009, Google purchased the Summa Mill from the Finnish paper company Stora Enso in order to convert it to a data center. In the first phase of the project, which was completed in September 2011, Google invested an initial €200 million. During this phase, more than 2,000 individuals from 50 different companies contributed to the project, including many local Finnish companies.
Google has continued to invest in Hamina over the years, with plans to invest another €600 million in 2020, bringing the total investment to €2 billion.
The Hamina data center serves as a model of sustainability and energy efficiency for all of Google’s data centers around the world. The technologically advanced cooling system, which uses seawater from the Bay of Finland, reduces energy use and was the first of its kind anywhere in the world.
Google has built the world’s most energy-efficient computing network. Each data center is equipped with high-performance servers that Google has customized for top energy-efficiency. The energy usage of data center facilities is optimized by installing intelligent temperature and lighting controls and innovative power distribution to minimize energy loss. Finally, latest technology innovations such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning are introduced to drive energy efficiency even further and optimize cooling in an automated way.
Google Cloud’s efforts produce tangible results
7 x computing power with the same amount of electrical power
30% energy savings thanks to an AI cooling system
1.10PUE average trailing twelve-month (TTM) PUE across data centers
On average, a Google data center is twice as energy efficient as a typical enterprise data center.
The CIO’s carbon emissions dilemma
CIOs can feel a new kind of pressure for being more responsible in IT operations and move priorities beyond normal IT duties as IT services and applications are one of the company’s largest consumers of electricity.
CIOs can drive the necessary change by reducing the immediate environmental impact of IT operations and lowering associated CO2 emissions by using the latest technologies and innovations to rethink and rebuild the solutions and business processes to be more efficient and sustainable.
The business case for sustainability can be justified by multiple benefits that motivate businesses to become more sustainable. More sustainable business operations can be used as a competitive advantage and strengthen brand image. More efficient business practices reduce costs and waste. In addition, a sustainable strategy helps businesses to comply with new regulations and policies. Finally, sustainable and environmental friendly businesses attract top talents and investors.
Renewable energy and carbon neutrality
The cleanest energy is the energy that is not used at all. Increasing the efficiency of cloud applications will mean using less energy, and most often less carbon emissions. This is why companies should select serverless cloud products that automatically scale with the workloads and take advantage of rightsizing recommendations for the associated compute instances.
By 2030 Google’s goal is to use carbon free electricity every hour of every day in every region for customer workloads. This will be achieved by aligning workloads with renewable carbon-free energy. Google’s carbon-intelligent computing platform shifts flexible computing loads to those times when renewable wind and solar power are available on the power system.
While Google is focusing on its own energy efficiency and clean carbon-free energy usage, Google is also showing an example by pioneering new renewable energy purchasing models that others can follow for obtaining wide-scale adoption of clean energy. This will ensure significant investments for renewable energy continuing in Europe.
IT innovations are also needed when fighting climate change. Google is building the Industrial Adaptive Controls platform in collaboration with DeepMind, which provides AI control of cooling systems in commercial and industrial facilities.
Recently, Google introduced a machine-learning system that predicts power output from wind parks 36 hours in advance. This type of predictive algorithms used together with energy power plants that can be scheduled can boost the value of power produced up to 20%.
These kinds of exciting real-life examples can strengthen business cases of renewable power sources and drive the adoption of greenhouse gas free energy around the world.
Let’s build a sustainable future together
Let us go back to the Hamina data center in Finland where Google has built what may be the world’s greenest data center. With help from The Cloud People your data can thrive in the industry’s cleanest cloud.
Do you want to know more about Google Cloud’s sustainability and how The Cloud People can help you make your business IT services and data less power consuming?
Please contact us today if you want to know how to reduce the environmental footprint of your company’s IT operations and make your business more sustainable by choosing the cleanest cloud platform in the industry.
Let’s build a sustainable future together!