On the path towards sustainable data centers

A consortium led by the University of Stuttgart presents recommendations for action to reduce the consumption of energy and raw materials Whether companies, municipalities or universities, almost every big organization in Germany has its own data center . But the "ventricles" of the digital infrastructure consume more energy and raw materials every year. A consortium from research, industry and business led by the Institute of Energy Economics and the Rational Use of Energy (IER) at the University of Stuttgart is carrying out research into how data centers can be made more sustainable. The results were presented in Stuttgart as part of a theme day held by the project partner, the Center for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research (ZSW). As part of It has also analyzed the possible contribution that data centers can make to making the energy system more flexible and developed indicators for the ecological, social and economic assessment of the sustainability of data centers. In his opening speech at the theme day, Director General at the Ministry of the Environment, Climate Protection and the Energy Sector Baden-Württemberg, Helmfried Meinel, welcomed the examples from the research consortium of how a sustainable digital transformation can work: "This means that in future, sustainable data centers can maybe even become a beacon of digitization in Baden-Württemberg", says Meinel. "It's important that data centers run on renewable energy but that's not enough", is how Director of Studies Prof. Peter Radgen from IER at the University of Stuttgart summarizes the results of the study.