"Environmental Pollution Responsibility"... Do IT Companies Also Emit Carbon? [Im Juhyung's Tech Talk]

Internet and Software-Based IT Industry Also Responsible for Environmental Pollution
Although They Do Not Directly Emit Carbon... Data Centers Consume Large Amounts of Electricity
IT Companies Strive to Improve Cooling Efficiency
Various Methods Including Building in Cold Areas or Sinking in the Sea

Inside view of the data center. The data center consists of server computers, wiring, cooling devices, and consumes a large amount of electricity. / Photo by Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Juhyung] Recently, the number of global companies preparing for the era of 'carbon neutrality' is increasing. Carbon neutrality means creating a sustainable industry that does not destroy the environment by making carbon emissions virtually zero.

Industries that usually put the most effort into carbon neutrality are manufacturing and transportation. This is because operating factories or moving airplanes and cars inevitably results in large carbon emissions.

However, recently, the IT industry has also been paying a lot of attention to creating a carbon-neutral industrial environment. Unlike manufacturing, which directly operates factories, IT companies generally provide 'intangible' services through the internet or software. So why have IT companies declared carbon neutrality? Does the digital industry also emit carbon?

Of course, digital services themselves do not emit carbon. However, the IT industry is indirectly responsible for carbon emissions.

Currently, many IT companies provide services through cloud computing technology. Cloud computing is a technology that allows digital services to be provided by renting computer resources from internet-connected data centers without directly owning hardware and software.

For example, we can store files not directly on our smartphones but on Apple's iCloud or Samsung Cloud. This is also cloud computing technology where Apple’s and Samsung’s data centers connected via smartphones and the internet store the files we need on our behalf. In this way, IT companies provide services to us today through data centers.

Carbon Dioxide (CO2) Emissions / Photo by Yonhap News

The problem is that data centers are facilities that consume a lot of electricity. Basically, data centers are buildings filled with numerous computer servers and electrical wiring. They must operate nonstop 24/7, and to cool the heat emitted by the computers, huge cooling systems are required, so power consumption is inevitably high.

According to data investigated by the International Energy Agency (IEA), as of last year, the global electricity consumption of data centers reached a total of 250 TWh (terawatt-hours, one trillion watt-hours), accounting for about 1% of total electricity production.

Also, after the global outbreak of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) this year, the demand for data centers is expected to soar sharply as more people use non-face-to-face services such as internet delivery, gaming, and streaming.

As a result, supplying the electricity needed for data centers inevitably relies on fossil fuel energy that emits carbon. Even if IT companies do not directly emit carbon, they are somewhat responsible for environmental pollution.

So, what methods are domestic and international IT companies using to achieve carbon neutrality?

Facebook's massive data center built in northern Sweden (above) and Microsoft's 'Natic' underwater data center / Photo by Facebook, Microsoft website capture

The key is to reduce power consumption so that data centers can be maintained using only clean energy. Accordingly, IT companies are working to improve the power efficiency of servers and especially maximize cooling efficiency.

The easiest way is to build data centers in places with low temperatures. Since 2012, companies like Google and Facebook have been focusing on building data centers in cold regions such as Alaska in the U.S., northern Canada, and Sweden.

Some companies even submerge data centers underwater. In 2018, Microsoft conducted an experiment by deploying a data center called 'Natick' under the sea off northern Scotland, UK. The servers in Natick were completely sealed with special alloys, and due to the low temperature, the servers could operate without additional cooling.

Naver's data center 'Gak (閣)' located in Chuncheon, Gangwon-do / Photo by Yonhap News

Data center thermal management technology incorporating the latest technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) is also advancing. DeepMind, a UK-based company that developed the AI 'AlphaGo' for playing Go and was acquired by Google in 2014, is a representative example.

In 2016, DeepMind announced that it developed a thermal management algorithm using AI based on AlphaGo that increased the cooling efficiency of Google data centers by more than 40%. This AI monitors data center usage in real time and performs predictive analysis to reduce waste in the total power consumption of the cooling system.

Meanwhile, domestic IT companies are also accelerating efforts to reduce data center power consumption. Naver’s data center 'Gak,' built in June 2013, is located in Chuncheon, Gangwon Province, where the temperature is the lowest in Korea.

In particular, it uses the cold air and groundwater of Chuncheon and Sokcho to keep the server room temperature consistently low. According to Naver, thanks to this design feature, the indoor air conditioner operation rate of Gak does not exceed 30 days per year.