Elon Musk's merger of his SpaceX aerospace company with his AI firm xAI has relit the thrusters under the concept of building big data centers in space. However, the technical difficulties involved may ultimately thwart his ambitions.
Underground hot rocks are emerging as a source of firm, low-carbon power for data centers, with new techniques expanding viable locations. Compared with nuclear, geothermal may be better positioned to support planned data center growth.
As AI supercharges the growth in data center energy demands, new developments are likely to be increasingly politicized. Central governments may support their expansion, but opposition from local authorities and environmentalists will grow.
Water use has become a critical element of a sustainability strategy. It is a location-specific issue: local climate and resources and the data center design will determine the water use profile of the facility.
Uptime Intelligence finds that operators and vendors face major delays in the supply of equipment, and are increasingly dissatisfied with their suppliers.
Siting colocation data centers in central business districts can have real advantages. So why does it happen so rarely? This report, based on interviews with providers, examines the operational challenges, and solutions for overcoming them.
As part of a sustainability strategy, focused attention on water use, circularity requirements and data center siting / design specifications will contribute significantly to sustainable data center operations.
Extreme weather events have become significantly more common and more severe in recent years - a pattern likely to continue for many decades to come. This report discusses the implications for data center owners and operators.
Andy Lawrence
Peter Judge
Jay Dietrich
Douglas Donnellan
Dr. Tomas Rahkonen