Bharti Airtel’s data centre business under Nxtra Digital, for example, is investing to develop proprietary efficient energy consumption solutions, which can be adopted at scale across its data.
“We are investing in the development of energy efficient solutions for our data centres through SPVs (special purpose vehicles). This helps create solutions that are to our needs specifically, and gives us ownership in them, helping us scale them up across our DC sites as the need arises,” a company executive said.
Nxtra has identified areas like energy efficiency, water conservation and waste management as focal points for its sustainability initiatives at data centres.
According to projections, power consumption of data centres in India is expected to reach nearly 5 gigawatts over next six to seven years, making sustainability critical.
To be sure, the move towards green data centres is wrought with challenges with industry executives seeking some policy intervention to aid in the process, rather than depending on operators alone.
“To ensure the adoption of sustainable measures in data centres, it is essential to involve both state and central governments in the decision-making process, rather than relying solely on data centre operators,” said Piyush Somani, chairman and managing director, ESDS Software Solution, a cloud services and data centre firm.Other areas of concern include the cost of transporting energy since not all geographies are conducive to setting up data centres and have access to continuous supply of energy from renewable sources.
Currently, one of the most common initiatives is using renewable sources of energy wherever possible.
“Data centres commonly use solar and wind energy to power their operations by deploying their own renewable energy facilities, purchasing renewable energy credits, and entering into power purchase agreements with renewable energy providers,” said Pravin C Rawool, associate vice president-Godrej electricals & electronics (MEP), Godrej & Boyce.
