Innovation Hub to speed green transition of data centres

DENMARK: Danfoss, Google, Microsoft and Schneider Electric have joined together in an initiative to accelerate the green transition of data centres.

The four companies, together with the Danish Data Center Industry, are launching a new pan-European initiative called Net Zero Innovation Hub For Data Centers, located in Fredericia, Denmark. The intention is to find ways to build better and more sustainable data centres.

With the number of internet users doubling in the last decade, and global internet traffic increasing 25-fold, the data centre industry is working to reduce the energy footprint in a number of areas. This includes energy efficiency, cooling, the supply chain, and improvements of the grid.

The Net Zero Innovation Hub intends to bring together key stakeholders in the European data centre sector – including regulators, researchers, operators, utility providers, NGOs, and grid/network services.

The consortium will function as a meeting place where key players can enter into collaborations and develop new innovative solutions that can be quickly implemented for the benefit of the green transition. At the same time, it will serve as an opportunity to share best practices and guidance from leading researchers. Initially, the focus is on developing solutions that lower or equalise the data centres’ carbon emissions and contribute to the stabilisation of the electricity grid.

The Danish Data Center Industry will act as a secretariat for the initiative, and the CEO of the association, Henrik Hansen, outlines the importance of the cross-sectoral nature of the Hub.

“This initiative reflects the level of commitment and responsibility the data centre industry is willing to take to solve the challenges ahead. The roadmap to zero-carbon data centres requires solutions beyond the industry’s capabilities to solve independently. The open-sourced approach with stakeholders, both within and outside of the industry, will significantly accelerate the industry towards net zero, aligning with EU’s ambitions for data centers by 2030,” Hansen said.

Danfoss Climate Solutions president Jürgen Fischer added: “We want to revolutionise how we build data centres. Danfoss is already working with our customers to build decarbonised data centres, but we need to speed things up and do it in partnerships across borders and industries. 

“That’s why Danfoss is proud to launch the Net Zero Innovation Hub For Data Centers, a neutral meeting place where key players can enter into collaboration to build better and more sustainable data centres.”