Datacenter Energy and Carbon Emission Projections and the Drive to Net Zero

Datacenter Energy and Carbon Emission Projections and the Drive to Net Zero

This IDC Market Note frames the preeminent datacenter challenge of meeting the growing demand for capacity while continuing to be environmentally responsible. By ingraining both digital and sustainability into the fabric of how they operate, enterprises have created the preeminent challenge for the datacenter industry: How can the industry meet the current and future capacity demands while being sustainable? IDC projects datacenter energy consumption to grow at a 16.0% CAGR from 382TWh in 2022 to 803TWh in 2027. While critical infrastructure, IT, and public datacenter providers are investing and innovating to address this dilemma, IDC predicts that datacenter carbon emissions will still be growing in 2027. The drive to net-zero emissions will take continued innovation and investment from the datacenter industry, but the industry cannot do it alone. While there is growth in cloud and colocation services that are moving toward 100% renewable energy, substantial portions of the datacenter portfolio will remain in private datacenters. Public utility companies need to be a partner and invest in renewable and emission-free energy sources to help reduce emissions for nonpublic datacenters.

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