Future data center energy-conservation and emission-reduction technologies in the context of smart and low-carbon city construction

The energy consumption of data centers accounts for approximately 1% of that of the world, the average power usage effectiveness is in the range of 1.4–1.6, and the associated carbon emissions account for approximately 2–4% of the global carbon emissions. To reduce the energy consumption of data centers and promote smart, sustainable, and low-carbon city development, this study analyzes the energy conservation and emission-reduction technologies and potential decarbonization paths for data centers, compares the energy-saving situation of 20 typical data center cases, and highlights the impact of green data centers on the global carbon neutrality goal. The analysis reveals that data center energy consumption can be reduced by about 20–40% and 15–27% through IT equipment optimization and cooling technology improvements, respectively. Data center energy-saving strategies must consider differences in geographical location, natural resources, and economic bases. Therefore, this study examines the necessary steps for building zero-carbon data centers from the perspectives of public policy, technological innovation, and resource management. Specifically, the following aspects are explored: 1) accelerating the intelligent and unified management of data center resources; 2) building storage-computing integrated data centers that are compatible with heterogeneous resources and streamlined business models; 3) realizing large-scale and diversified use of clean energy in data centers.