πŸ”™ Throwback Thursday for 2024-08-29

Data center power consumption has been a below the fold news topic in the past but has ramped along with coverage of recurring topics of A.I. which is even more power intensive. But how long has there been a data center energy crisis?

In short, the data center energy crisis has always been there. The difference is that modern data center demands are now hyperscale cloud service providers.

For example, if you were to look back to 2007, you might recall so-called green data center initiatives like β€œIBM Project Big Green” in response to the data center energy crisis.

IBM Project Big Green in 2007
via archive.org

Fast forward to the present… What makes β€œgreen” claims so interesting is how the established data center players are always looking for better power purchase agreements (PPAs) or virtual power purchase agreements(vPPAs) terms β€” but is always about more electrons, not less.

Meta, Google, Microsoft, and Apple do their own tracking as well. However, the coverage of how that tracking is done has raised more questions.

https://www.techmeme.com/240814/p10#a240814p10


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