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2 New briefs on Data Centres!

October 20, 2020

Digitalisation Powerhouse and Energy Efficiency Potential 

Key messages:

  • The digitalisation of the economy worldwide and technological innovations such as artificial intelligence (AI), internet-of-things (IoT) and blockchain are driving exponential growth in the demand for data centres’ services.
  • Data centres use approximately 200 TWh of electricity annually, corresponding to roughly 1% of global electricity demand.
  • To curb the rapid growth in the energy use of data centres, it is key that the future demand for data centres’ services will be met by energy-efficient data centres and that their uptake of renewable energy is accelerated.
  • Policy-makers should establish robust mechanism to collect data and publish statistics on the energy use of data centres, similarly to what has been done for other energy-intensive sectors.

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Reducing the energy use of video gaming: energy efficiency and gamification

Key messages:

  • Video gaming is an increasingly popular leisure activity worldwide, but it has environmental impacts due to the energy used driving climate change and resource issues over the entire life cycle of the gaming devices.
  • Among electric equipment in households, gaming devices are gradually becoming more relevant in terms of their overall energy use.
  • Playing video games on newer generation game consoles uses significantly less energy than playing on computers, when the unit energy consumption of the equipment is considered.
  • Playing video games in the cloud, known as cloud gaming, can draw as much as a three-fold increase in energy use compared to local gaming.
  • The energy used in gaming should be integrated into end-use energy demand forecasts and routinely updated with demographic data and technology preferences, which can change quickly.
  • Improved consumer information and the gamification of energy information are recommended strategies
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