AI-generated summary
The digital world’s rapid expansion has led to significant energy consumption, with data centers and networks accounting for 1% to 1.5% of global electricity use—a figure that continues to rise. In response, Europe is implementing regulatory and technical measures to align digital growth with climate goals. The European Commission’s Green Cloud & Green Data Centres initiative promotes renewable energy use, improved efficiency, and waste heat reuse. The EU Code of Conduct on Data Centre Energy Efficiency sets practical guidelines for operators, including continuous energy monitoring, optimized cooling, clean energy integration, and circular infrastructure design.
Technological advancements are also crucial, as AI models grow in complexity and demand greater energy efficiency. Innovations such as liquid cooling and thermal immersion are gaining traction, while companies like Equinix adopt renewable energy and advanced cooling systems to reduce power usage effectiveness (PUE). Edge computing is emerging to process data closer to its source, reducing network energy use. Hardware improvements, exemplified by Amazon Web Services’ energy-efficient chips, further contribute to sustainability. Additionally, reusing server-generated waste heat for district heating enhances overall efficiency and offers economic benefits. Europe plans to introduce legislation by 2026 to enforce these energy efficiency commitments, aiming for climate neutrality by 2030. The future of digitalization hinges on balancing growth with reduced energy intensity, marking a shift toward a sustainable digital and energy revolution.
A tour of data center energy efficiency: metrics, technologies, and the players that are redefining it.
The digital world is growing at a rate that few imagined a few decades ago. Every click, every search, and every model of AI adds to a global infrastructure that consumes as much energy as entire countries. The International Energy Agency It recalls that data centers and networks already account for between 1% and 1.5% of global electricity, and their demand curve continues to rise.
Faced with this reality, Europe has decided to intervene. The European Commission is promoting a framework that aims to make digital growth compatible with the climate transition. The Green Cloud & Green Data Centres initiative proposes that the centres operate with renewable energies, improve their efficiency and reuse the waste heat that is lost today.
In this context, the EU Code of Conduct on Data Centre Energy Efficiency, developed by the Joint Research Centre, has become the technical reference for operators across the continent. Its guidelines establish verifiable practices to reduce electricity consumption: continuous measurement of PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness, standard indicator to measure the energy efficiency of a data center), optimized cooling, integration of clean energies and circular design of the infrastructure.
The challenge, however, is no longer only regulatory, but also technological. As AI models increase in size and complexity, the Energy efficiency ceases to be a technical detail and becomes a strategic factor. Global operators know this: liquid cooling and thermal immersion, which a few years ago seemed like experimental technologies, are beginning to become more widespread.
The American multinational Equinix, specialized in data center management, transparently publishes its approach to energy efficiency, from adopting renewable energy to implementing advanced refrigeration and operating at higher temperatures to reduce HVAC usage. According to the company, the use of systems developed by the Swedish company Munters, allows it to achieve a PUE close to 1.2 in temperate climates.
However, the conversation about Digital sustainability goes beyond how a server is cooled—it includes how data is processed and moved. Edge computing is consolidating itself as a mechanism to reduce latency and consumption: processing closer to where the data is generated avoids unnecessary traffic, alleviates the load on central data centers and decreases the energy use of networks.
Hardware is also experiencing its own green transition. Amazon Web Services offers Clear figures: Its Graviton chip, specifically designed for efficiency, reduces the power consumptionor up to 60% compared to equivalent general-purpose processors. And AI chips, such as Trainium, are optimized to maximize performance per watt in machine learning loads.
The reuse of waste heat is becoming another central element of this new energy logic. In fact, the heat generated by servers, which was previously dissipated unused, can power district heating systems. Recent studies show that their conversion using thermodynamic cycles can significantly improve the overall efficiency of the site and generate economic benefits.
Beyond intentions, Europe is also making progress in regulation. Various legal analyses anticipate that in 2026 the EU will introduce a specific legislative package for data centre efficiency, with the aim of aligning them with data centre commitments. Climate neutrality by 2030.
Everything points to a change of cycle. Digitalization can no longer be understood only in terms of speed and capacity; it should be measured by its energy intensity, environmental impact and circularity. The data economy is entering its decisive decade: that of demonstrating that it is possible to process more, store more and learn more… consuming less. The digital revolution will only be sustainable if it also becomes an energy revolution.
