According to the report, the lowest PUE data center can be found in Europe and the US/Canada. Both seem to have almost the same equivalent sample sizes, but Europe has about a 5% lower average PUE.
There are a lot many reasons behind this, some of these are as follows:
- This can be because of the high energy prices trend in Europe.
- This can also be because of the regulator’s or operator’s attitudes.
- The last reason is that Europe is more environmentally conscientious than the US.
Along with this, the other important factor that causes this is temperate climates which most of the areas of Europe have. These European continent’s data centers include Frankfurt house, London, Amsterdam, Dublin, and Nordic countries.
If we see each region separately, it’s too small to be significant, but if we see at the Asia-pacific region, about 1 in 10 reported a PUE greater than 2.19.
These include data center filling or emptying, operating or not operating the data centers, and many more. Surprisingly, about 1 in a roundabout six respond to the survey that they don’t know about the average PUE of the largest data center.
If we compare the responses of both Us/Canadians and Europeans, then European respond twice times more as that Canadian. A good PUE figure is a badge of honor for many people. But when it comes to a poor one, it’s a bit difficult as they require an explanation.
The Number of Challenges that the European Data Center Market faces
A plethora of business challenges can be seen when comparing the European Data Center with that of the United States. It wasn’t easy at the start, as around about 23 languages are spoken all across Europe. Comparing it to western Europe, it’s not an issue at all as there are about 28 different currencies, even having a single common currency that’s Euro. These multi-currencies led to complications while contracting and multi-national product prices.
Along with these, there are many other challenges that the European Data Center market faces. These challenges are on record, and many factors apply to them to make them passable. This will help the European Data Center market to have maximum data centers energy efficiency in their areas. Having different situations at the same time proves to be a bit difficult.
Sustainability of the European Data Center
Regarding environmental sustainability, European regulations are more intense compared to the US. Much research led us to record the data center’s energy efficiency. 100% renewable energy resources, extremely high-energy efficiency, and a low PUE number led you to have regulations at your data centers. This would automatically affect your data center’s energy efficiency.
Lowest PUE Data Center
This is not intended to use as a relative measure across sites (as every situation is different). Still, it would be an excellent measure when comparing the impact of improvements at any site over time. Almost everyone in that pack in that place in California agreed when the PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness) statistic for data centers was first agreed upon by the participants of The Green Grid back in 2007.
Therefore, with some trepidation, Uptime Institute releases the graph below, which demonstrates that, overall, data centers in Europe are the most energy efficient, while those in the Middle East and Africa are the least efficient.
The information was obtained by answering the question, “What is the average yearly PUE for your biggest data center?” that Uptime poses as part of its annual worldwide data center survey. The largest data center’s average PUE among the almost 450 responders to that query in 2020 was 1.59. Although this number decreased somewhat from the previous year, it maintained the trend of no growth or very little increase since 2013.
The data created in the chart is a subset of people who reported PUEs within 1.0 and 2.19. (313 respondents). Regional averages varied from 1.46 (Europe) to 1.79 (North America) (Africa and the Middle East).
The economy of Data Centers
Canada’s data center sector is booming, with a contribution from the digital economy of 4.4% to the country’s overall GDP of over US $1.55 trillion. The digital economy in Canada also consists of 33.21 million mobile phone subscribers and 13.84 million telephony subscriptions.
Data centers markets
Many data center clusters are spread out across Canada, offering many colocation opportunities. The main markets in Canada for colocation data centers are:
Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Calgary Edmonton
Since Canada has only none neighbor, the United States, most international traffic passes via this country before it reaches either EMEA or Asia. There are 328 data centers in Canada, and most connectivity facilities are found in and near Toronto. Large Canadian data centers that are carrier neutral equip with cutting-edge technology and diverse ecosystems to enable optimum Uptime and connection to over 1,537 service providers.
Energy Distribution
Energy sector coverage, a crucial component of any market for data centers, is strong in Canada. 68% of the nation’s energy comes from green or renewable sources, with the remainder coming from fossil or nuclear resources. Canada’s data centers frequently have access to free cooling because of its northern location and correspondingly mild temperature.
These elements greatly increase the prospects for green energy use for Canadian colocation facilities. Customers of data centers benefit from green energy and a variety of PUE ratings between 1.08 and 2.17. The PUE for data centers in Canada is 1.38 on average. The power output of Canadian colocation facilities exceeds 958.35 MW, and they offer a selection of rack power options ranging from 2.16 kW to 25 kW.
Conclusion
PUE is the Power Usage Efficiency Index which measures the amount of total energy used by a data center while it was at full capacity and takes into account both IT equipment and infrastructure power consumption. The lower the number, the better the overall efficiency of any given data center.
France, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands showed great development in deploying more efficient data centers. China had the highest score amongst non-EU countries whereas Finland remained on top in the EU. The United States is only average with a score of 49.
Hence, low power data centers are predicted to become the main stream of next generation data centers.