How data center operators can transition to renewable energy

Transitioning to renewable energy use is an important, but not easily achieved, goal. Although the past decade has seen significant improvements in IT energy efficiency, there are indications that this may not continue. Moore’s Law may be slowing, more people are coming online, and internet traffic is growing faster than ever before. As energy consumption increases, data center operators will need to transition to 100% renewable energy use 100% of the time.

Uptime Institute has recently published a report covering the key components of renewable energy sustainability strategies for data centers. The tech industry has made considerable effort to improve energy efficiency and is the largest purchaser of renewable energy. Even so, most data center sustainability strategies still focus on renewable energy certificates (RECs). RECs are now considered to be low quality products because they cannot credibly be used to back claims of 100% renewable energy use.