Abstract:
The European Commission has proposed a draft new regulation that would require major data centers in Europe to publicly disclose their energy and water usage efficiency to deal with the huge resource consumption and environmental concerns caused by the booming development of artificial intelligence technology.
In order to fully support the development of artificial intelligence and reduce its dependence on large American technology companies, the European Union plans to triple the capacity of local data centers in the next five to seven years. Data show that total EU data center capacity is expected to surge from 12 gigawatts (GW) last year to 28 GW in 2023. However, the European Commission pointed out in a report in June that data centers currently account for about 2.5% of the EU's total electricity consumption. If their resource consumption is not controlled, the rapid expansion of computing facilities will put huge pressure on the European power grid, exacerbate water shortages in local areas, and lead to a significant increase in carbon emissions.
In order to guide companies to build more sustainable computing infrastructure, the European Commission plans to establish a standardized grading and labeling system. According to the draft new regulations, all data center operators with an installed capacity of 500 kilowatts (kW) or more must disclose their energy efficiency (PUE) and water efficiency (WUE) data through the labeling system. In addition, data centers must also disclose the correlation between their water usage and local water stress (Water Stress), and describe whether they have the ability to provide energy services to surrounding communities, such as recovering and reusing waste heat generated by the data center.
It is worth noting that the new regulations proposed this time do not set a hard limit on the total power consumption or total water consumption of data centers, nor do they force operators to disclose their absolute total power consumption. Instead, they focus on public transparency and usage efficiency. However, the European Commission has made it clear that this rating labeling system may become a prelude to the implementation of mandatory minimum energy and water efficiency standards in the future.
Currently, the draft rules have been submitted to EU member states and the European Parliament. If the parties do not raise objections within the next two months, the regulation will officially take effect and be implemented.
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