Commitments to be “greener” than hyperscalers collide with reality: Data centers consume more and more energy So the difficulty of production to meet the demand increases, especially this year. So here it is AWS has asked for installation of 105 diesel generators A new data center in Dublin, due to the risk of blackouts or power rationing during the winter.

A new Irish data center will use AWS diesel generators

In 2021, data centers in Ireland absorbed 14% of the electricity generated in the country, more than all rural houses. The significant growth Irish data centers have seen in recent years has clashed with the inability to supply enough electricity from the grid, with the company that manages it, EirGrid. A moratorium was imposed For this reason in building new data centers in Dublin.

Commission on Regulation of Energy Companies (Commission for Regulation of Utilitiesor CRU for short) has said it will impose restrictions on connecting new data centers, favoring those that can reduce energy demand by using their own generators or storage tools.

Amazon’s 105 diesel generators appear to have been reported Register Precisely related to this last fact. It highlights once again, however, that The vulnerability of promises of sustainability Hyperscalers: Of course, the particular situation we find ourselves in now is unusual and depends on geopolitical factors affecting the entire economy, but it is actually part of a larger problem of increasing consumption and underinvestment in data centers. In producing clean energy, the big companies that control them.

In other words, data centers are by no means self-sufficient from an energy perspective, and governments and regulators have reached a point where governments and regulators have to decide whether to power new data centers, homes, and other manufacturing operations on the one hand. hand other This is not a choice that can be resolved in the short term, given the close link that now connects digital infrastructures to our economy, or the time frame required to build new sustainable energy infrastructures.