Europe: New report reveals countries in the EU with the cleanest energy and what it means for the data center industry

In August, cloud management platform Cirrus Nexus released a report which analyzed the carbon intensity of electricity across a number of E.U. countries, and revealed the most climate-friendly regions to operate data centers. The company obtained its answers by analyzing the amount of energy consumed in a week across the U.S. and the E.U. at locations where providers typically locate their data centers. After this, the company estimated the region’s carbon intensity (the amount of carbon dioxide emitted per unit of electricity generated.) 

According to the CEO and co-founder of Cirrus Nexus, Chris Noble, the report was a result of wanting to recommend regions with low-carbon intensity, however, as the study went on, it wasn’t straightforward, as a result of areas offering renewable energy being subject to intermittency. Subsequently, it was recommended that there should be increased investment in energy storage technology to allow power grids to take better advantage of the times when solar, wind, and water power is strong, with less reliance on fossil fuels to fill in the gaps. 

Additionally, it was found that the locations with the lowest carbon intensity were also the places where it was the most expensive to run a data center. California, for instance, was identified as the most sustainable data center region, with solar energy peaking at 57% of the region’s total energy production, however, running workloads was 3-10% higher than in other U.S. data center regions. Comparatively Midwestern U.S. “was persistently dirty,” with coal and natural gas being the region’s main sources of energy production.

Meanwhile, in Europe, Sweden and France were found to have the lowest carbon intensities, both relying largely on nuclear and, in the former case, hydropower. Germany and Italy, on the other hand, while having solar infrastructure, were found to rely on fossil alternatives when the sun went in. The report also highlighted Ireland as an example of how renewable energy can cause fluctuations in carbon intensity; the report showed that in the week carbon intensity was analyzed, it went from being in the middle of the European pack, to the dirtiest region in Europe when the wind waned. However, when the wind picked up again, the country shot up to the third-cleanest, generating excess power. 

While the report may inform data center operators' choice of location, cost and data center sovereignty will also likely play a role here, especially in the case of the latter; some countries have strict local privacy legislation that require companies to keep data local.