With global data centre capacity projected to almost triple by 2035, a new study from Wärtsilä outlines how the right power choices could take advantage of an opportunity to ‘accelerate renewable energy growth, while significantly reducing costs, land and water use’. The study, ‘Unlock power. Unleash growth: How data centres can create tomorrow’s power system flexibility’, determines that powering 55 GW of data centres with flexible off-grid engines rather than combined-cycle gas turbines could save EUR 196 billion over a 20-year period.
Compared with CCGTs in the modelled scenario, engine-based solutions could use 99.97% less water, owing to reduced cooling requirements, and occupy less land, totalling about 160 sq km, as they require less generating equipment and battery energy storage to supply the same data centre demand. The modelling explores a scenario in which global off-grid data centre capacity reaches 55 GW by 2035.
Wärtsilä developed this scenario using third-party forecasts, including BloombergNEF’s data centre outlooks, and an assessment of currently announced projects.
Onsite power is said to be an increasingly attractive option for data centre developers, enabling them to avoid grid connection queues that can be lengthy. Advantages for data centres connected to the grid include the provision of backup power and helping balance fluctuations in wind and solar generation. These advantages can, with energy storage, can, says the report, ‘play a key role in enabling the lowest cost, least emissions and most land-efficient pathway towards a 100% renewable energy future.’
Using the data centre boom as a vehicle to supercharge investment in technology that can support future energy systems could help avoid up to €200 bn in additional balancing-capacity costs over 20 years, subject to suitable grid and market arrangements, says the report.
Data centres could also supply recovered waste heat to homes and businesses through district heating networks. The study draws on an IEA estimate that this heat could meet around 10% of European space-heating demand, creating €180 bn in net economic value over a 20-year period.
Wärtsilä is calling for data centre developers, regulators and power system operators to work together to unlock the system-level benefits driven by onsite power technologies, to meet growing electricity demand, as well as a suite of associated benefits, including the transition towards a 100% renewable energy future.
More information from in the report and how it is modelled here and on the Wärtsilä website.
