The data center industry is facing an accelerated demand for computing power, and with this heightened demand comes the issue of an increase in carbon emissions. The carbon emissions from the ICT sector are expected to grow dramatically between 2025 and 2030, totaling up to about 8% to 10% of total carbon emissions globally. As a result, the data center industry is continuously working to find innovative solutions to reduce carbon emissions while keeping pace with an ever-growing demand. 

Quantum Loophole, Inc., an innovative developer of first-of-its-kind master planned data center communities, joined other thought leaders on a panel at International Telecoms Week 2021 (ITW2021).  The panel  discussion, titled Go Green, took place Wednesday, September 1, 2021 at 11am ET. Quantum Loophole’s Founder and CEO, Josh Snowhorn, participated alongside other industry leaders where they discussed strategies for greener connectivity options in the data center industry. 

When asked, “How do you harm emissions in a sector that is continuously growing to support demands for greater computing power?” Josh said, “It’s not just about emissions from a power plant or your diesel generator, it’s starting from the beginning of the cycle.” Josh wenton to encourage thinking about how to implement environmentally-sound practices from purchasing land, to building, to day-to-day operations. One of the examples was water use – how data center managers can explore using recycled gray water instead of drinking water.

During the conversation, Josh also mentioned that data center managers should think about replacing backup generators which burn fossil fuel for battery-powered technology. Josh expanded on this by providing insight on Quantum Loophole’s solution, “in our case, we’re doing gigawatt scale battery farms at four hours and greater over time as the technology changes. So we’re removing the need for generators completely, by being on transmission scale power.Being on the main transmission lines means you don’t have distribution, we are taking existing transmission lines, and then feeding that with stainable, solar, wind pumped hydro and other similar means. So it’s a full lifecycle play. It’s not just about the emissions from the power plants or the emissions from the generators. It’s everything.”

Learn more from the ITW 2021, Go Green session by accessing the video, for free, through the ITW virtual platform.