How Green Is My Internet?

How Green Is My Internet?

Comparative Case Study Of Nine Finnish IT Companies’ Energy Use

iCOAL FINLAND BACKGROUND PAPER Heikki Lindfors

Table of Contents 1 Introduction: what is cloud?

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2 Methodology 4

2.1 Research objectives

4

3 Results 5

3.1 Company ratings explained

6

Academica

6

Dna

6

Elisa

7

Ficolo

7 Fujitsu 8 Herman IT 9 Innofactor 9 Tieto 9 TDC 9

TeliaSonera

10

3.2 Result summary: usual energy efficiency technologies 10

4 Discussion 12

4.1 Renewable energy use in Finnish ICT sector

4.2 Does price of electricity promote energy savings?

4.3 Energy savings in mobile networks

12 12 12

5 Recommendations 13

5.1 Recommendations for businesses

5.2 Recommendations for policy makers and public sector 5.3 Recommendations for energy companies

13 13 14

6 References 15

Abbreviations CRAC GHG IT ICT RE

Computer room air conditioning unit Greenhouse gas Information technology Information and communications technology Renewable energy

Text Heikki Lindfors Photos Frank van Biemen / EvoSwitch / Greenpeace Layout Pieta Kivel채 2

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Introduction: what is cloud?

Cloud computing is a type of computing resource that is delivered to user over internet. The software runs on the server, and the data is stored at the server. Some examples include web-based email services, social network services, media services, online news services, and cloud-based storage.

Companies can purchase cloud services that run office programs from data centers, which work on the individual’s computer’s web browser. All these applications are located at the cloud service provider’s data center, and only the output is displayed in user’s computer. Cloud computing services are becoming more common nowadays, and we use these services every day in our work and private lives without realizing it. And it makes our lives easier, as we don’t have to transfer data with external hard drives and memory sticks. Files are available on our home computer, laptop, smartphones, and even on public computers. Flexible and efficient.

personal photos or sensitive work documents.

Common legislation does not exist yet.

Although ICT sector’s carbon footprint is growing rapidly, it has even larger potential to reduce emissions in other sectors. Dematerialization of high carbon footprint products, efficient logistics and motor systems, remote work opportunities, smart buildings and smart grids would reduce overall energy consumption of society. SMART 2020 -report estimates the every watt consumed in these applications has potential to reduce five watts in other sectors. This is called the “enabling effect”.

Cloud services provide opportunities to enterprises also. It is faster, more flexible and cheaper to buy cloud service from provider than build the system with own resources. Web-based email and video conferencing services let employers work anywhere. Small enterprises rarely have finance department, but they can use bookkeeping cloud software to manage incomes and expenses, which is cheaper than buying large dedicated financing software and learning to use it. Before companies had to purchase large software systems, install them to all computers, and maintain and update them continuously. Now it’s possible to get same software on cloud, which is updated and maintained by provider.

However, the enabling effect has not been successful in reality so far. Remote work opportunities have been discussed for more than twenty years now, but people still want to work at workplace.

When computers became common in workplaces, there were visions of paperless office. Video conferencing methods can bring people in distant places in immediate contact with each other, but looking pixelated laggy video feed with occasional connection problems makes working worse, not easier.

Maybe these applications will become more common in future, but experience tells that this enabling effect will take it’s time. Some companies have to be pioneers in these methods. If pioneers are successful, new working methods might become the norm very quickly in working life; smartphones have been available for five years now, and everyone has one nowadays. But just as remote work opportunities haven’t really materialized, not all innovative work methods will materialize, although some might use them successfully.

Cloud has its dark side too. Data centers might be vulnerable to hacking and other misuse. Cloud companies make user agreements usually so that they are practically free of any responsibility in case of misuse, and they might reserve copyrights to any material users upload to cloud, including

In this study, the energy efficiency and renewable energy use of eight Finnish ICT companies are analyzed, and their performance evaluated regarding their electricity provider’s energy mix, their renewable energy advocacy, waste heat utilization, greenhouse gas policy and energy efficiency.

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2

Methodology

This study was made based on open questionnaire to eight ICT companies (Academica, Dna, Elisa, Ficolo, Fujitsu, Innofactor, Tieto, TDC and TeliaSonera), other expert interviews (Riku Eskelinen from Finnish Association for Nature Conservation, Jukka Manner from Aalto University, Mikko Pervilä from University of Helsinki, Marko Ruokonen and Ari Tervo from Rittal oy), and literature review (existing related studies on topic, companies’ corporate responsibility reports, companies’ web sites). Energy source data was available from the web sites of electricity utilities of the ICT companies. Other answers are directly from the companies, might contain previously classified data, and might not be available from literary sources. Therefore, third party review of the all data is not possible.

2.1 Research objectives The aim of this research was to evaluate and compare: • Energy use of 9 ICT companies. (Academica, Dna, Elisa, Ficolo, Fujitsu, Innofactor, Tieto, TDC and TeliaSonera) • Climate impact of the energy use of 9 ICT companies, regarding the source of their electricity.

• Energy efficiency investments of 9 ICT companies, regarding efficient equipment and utilization of waste heat.

• Advocacy of promoting energy efficiency and renewable energy use.

• Climate targets of 9 ICT companies.

• Transparency of 9 ICT companies, regarding their energy use and environmental impacts.

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3

Results Company

Electricity Utility

Clean Energy Index

Fossil

Nuclear

Renewables & Advocacy

Waste heat utilization

GHG Policy

Energy efficiency

Helsingin Energia

54%

12%

34%

B

A

F

A (PUE: 1.15)

Helsingin Energia Lahden Energia1

37%

38%

25%

C

C

F

B (PUE: 1,2-1,5)

Savon voima

22%

50%

28%

D

B

A

Porin Energia

100%

A

D

C

B (PUE: 1,2-1,3)

Vantaan Energia

23%

49%

28%

D

B

A

A (PUE: 1,3-1,7)

Helsingin Energia

54%

12%

34%

B

F

A

B

Vattenfall

100%

A

D

A

B

DNA data centers at Vantaa and Lahti assumed to utilize equal 50% share of data center electricity use: RE: 1,4 TWh/2 * 0,54 (Helen) + 1,4 TWh/2 * 0,2 (Lahti) = 0,518 TWh 37%, fossile fuels: 1,4 TWh/2 * 0,12 (Helen) + 1,4 TWh/2 * 0,64 (Lahti) = 0,532 TWh 38%, nuclear: 1,4 TWh/2 * 0,34 (Helen) + 1,4 TWh/2 * 0,16 (Lahti) = 0,350 TWh 25%

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Criteria for scores: Waste heat utilization rating: A: waste heat utilized in all data centers, B: waste heat is utilized in some data centers, C: waste heat is utilized in planned data centers, D: waste heat utilization is considered, F: waste heat is not utilized GHG Policy rating: A: company has clear and ambitious GHG policy, F: Company doesn’t have public GHG policy, Energy Efficiency Rating: A: proper energy efficiency methods are in place, and energy efficiency is constantly improved by company/manufacturer, B: proper energy efficiency methods are in place, F: there is room for improvements in energy efficiency

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3.1 Company ratings explained Academica Academica is medium-sized Finnish data center operator. Their data centers are located in Helsinki, under Uspenski cathedral and in Suvilahti.

Renewable energy & advocacy: B

Dna

Academica purchases its electricity, heating and cooling from Helsingin Energia, which produces 54% of its energy from renewable sources, mostly hydropower. 54% is respectable share amongst Finnish power companies, but there are other ICT companies that purchase only renewable electricity. The annual electricity use is between 6-8 GWh per annum.

Dna is a ICT company, concentrated on wired and mobile communications, with hosting and data center sevices as well. Company owns and operates a contry-wide mobile network. The company’s ICT-infrastructure is distributed into small units around the country, rather than large concentrated data centers.

Waste heat utilization: A

Cloud service providing data centers are located in Lahti and Vantaa, which consume 1,4 GWh electricity annually. These data centers are served by Lahden Energia (RE share 20,4% 2011) and Helsingin energia (RE share 54%). The whole company used 111 GWh in 2011. Net electricity consumption increases about 5% per year, while data transfer doubles yearly.

Academica is a forerunner in waste heat utilization.

All waste heat produced by Academica data center is utilized in district heating network.

GHG policy: F Academica does not have clear and public greenhouse gas reduction policy. However, company has made all usual energy efficiency measures and has chosen its energy utility according to share of renewable electricity.

Energy efficiency: A Academica provides virtualization to its customers, in applications, servers and desktops (thin client).

As Academica’s data center is highly optimized in energy use, major savings in energy 6

use can be achieved when companies outsource their IT-processes to Academica. For example, thin clients utilize only one tenth of energy consumed by desktop computers. Academica’s data center received Uptime Institute’s “Most Efficient Data Center In The World” –award in 2010.

Renewables & advocacy: C

Share of renewable electricity in Helsinki is somewhat high, but in Lahti share is usual for Finnish electricity utility. Dna is a large ICT company with huge energy consumption, and it should make a clear policy to purchase electricity from renewable sources to its own premises. It should be noted however, that Dna does not own all premises where it operates, and it cannot choose electricity provider in rented premises.

Waste heat utilization: C Waste heat is utilized in Vantaa data center, to heat office premises. Data centers use free cooling for most of the year. Dna is planning a new data center in Vallila, Helsinki. Vallila data center will utilize district cooling from Helsingin energia, and inject waste heat into district heating network.

GHG policy: F Dna does not have clear and public GHG reductio policy.

Energy efficiency: A Dna has set usual energy efficiency measures in its data centers: There are cold- and hot aisles in data centers, and air flow is optimized inside server rooms. PUE number in current data centers is 1,5.

PUE number of new Vallila data center will be 1,2.

Dna provides remote work services to its customers. When the company invests on new hardware, used server hardware is recycled to educational facilities.

Mobile network

Dna uses multi-radio technology in its mobile network base stations. Multi-radio allows one base station to provide 2G, 3G and 4G coverage. Dna in taking Remote Radio -technology into use in its mobile networks (already in use in Helsinki area).

Technology allows mobile network base stations use outside air for cooling, instead of external cooling, reducing base station electricity use. Company is testing ways to produce renewable electricity locally for remote base stations, for example with wind turbines. Testing these innovations in mobile network sets a positive example; mobile networks tend to utilize huge amounts of electricity. All mobile operators should investigate similar technologies and put them to use if tests are successful.

Elisa Elisa is an ICT company, concentrated on wired and mobile communications, with quickly growing cloud service sector. Company operates country-wide mobile network, but opposed to Dna and TeliaSonera, it’s data center infrastructure is more concentrated into large cities.

Renewables & Advocacy: D Elisa’s total electricity use was 198 GWh in 2011, of which 162GWh in Finland and 36 GWh in Estonia. Elisa’s data centers use electricity from Savon

Voima, which produces 22% of its electricity by renewable energy sources. This share is average amongst Finnish electricity utilities. Savon voima operates some wind- and hydroelectricity, but the company has not applied for any RE certificate (ekoenergia, or Guarantee of Origin). RE share is not confirmed by third party. Thus, Elisa and its customers can only assume RE share informed by Savon voima is true.

Waste heat utilization: B Elisa’s largest data center is located in Espoo, and others are located in Finland and Estonia. Espoo data center utilizes waste heat and feeds it into district heating network. Annually, Espoo data center makes 20 GWh of waste heat, which is enough to heat 1000 homes.

GHG policy: A Elisa has ambitious and clear CO2-policy. The company reduced its carbon footprint from 87 582 tCO2 (2010) by 15 232 tCO2 in 2011. Company provides comprehensive environmental responsibility report annually. Data center use made emissions of 34 000 tCO2 in 2011.

Energy efficiency Elisa provides video conferencing services and remote work services both in-house and to its customers. Company estimates that its cloud services reduce energy consumption by 94%, compared if all its customers would have their own server solutions. This reduction is equivalent of 994 tCO2 reduction.

Elisa didn’t provide detailed data of its energy efficiency measures in its data centers when asked.

Ficolo Ficolo is a new actor in Finnish ICT sector, providing cloud services. Company was established and its data center went online in 2011, by former employees of TDC. Ficolo’s data center is located in Ulvila (near Pori).

Renewables & advocacy: A Current capacity of the data center is 1 MW (8760MWh/a). Maximum capacity of data center will be 10-20 MW. Data center utilizes 100% wind energy, from Porin Energia, produced at Meri-Porin Tuulipuisto. Company investigates invest into its own bio-energy plant. Use of wind energy is exceptionally environmentally friendly; the electricity 7

utility can increase wind turbine capacity as the consumption of the data center increases. Ficolo’s usage of 100% wind power is clearly mentioned in Ficolo website, and company uses green energy use as competitive advantage.

Waste heat utilization: D Ficolo does not currently utilize waste heat from data center, and there is no definite plans to do so.

Utilization of waste heat is possible in the area, for example in greenhouses.

GHG Policy: C Ficolo does not publish its greenhouse gas reduction policy in its website. However, the company has only one data center, which is extremely energy efficient - more so than any of its competitors in Finland. The company uses only GHG emission free electricity, so the GHG impact of the whole company is very low.

Energy efficiency: B Data center is located inside a rock cave. This creates constant temperature of +7 C around the year. Free cooling is used around the year. Different innovations are investigated for future, including using waste heat at greenhouses. Virtualizationand cold and hot aisles are in use in the data center. PUE number of the data center is 1,2-1,3.

Fujitsu

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Fujitsu is a global IT company, which provides all sorts of hardware solutions and hosting and cloud services as well. Fujitsu has implemented energy efficiency and environmental assessments in all its

operations, and can be considered a global forerunner in environmental responsibility. Fujitsu considers the whole life cycle of its products, regarding all environmental aspects, from CO2 and energy use to recycling of used hardware and reduction of toxic chemical use.

Renewables and advocacy: C Fujitsu is a major actor in cloud computing sector.

Fujitsu has three data centers in Finland, with total consumption of 13,5 GWh. Fujitsu aims to purchase 1/3 of its electricity from renewable sources by 2015. Currently the company buys its electricity from Vantaan energia, which provides 23% of its electricity from renewable sources, which is usual share amongst Finnish electricity utilities.

Waste heat utilization: B Currently Fujitsu utilizes waste heat in some of its data centers. Company is planning to utilize waste heat in all of its data centers in future.

GHG Policy: A Fujitsu has clear and ambitious global GHG reduction policy available on its website. GHG emissions are accounted in all company’s operations and emissions are continuously reduced.

Energy efficiency: A Fujitsu uses in-house designed server hardware in its data centers, optimized for energy efficiency.

Virtualization optimizes electricity consumption.

Data centers use free cooling under +7 C ‌ -2 C (threshold temperature depending on data center).

PUE number of the Finnish data centers are 1,31,7.

Herman IT Herman IT is finnish ICT company, providing cloud services. Herman IT’s data center is under construction in Renforsin Ranta, Kajaani, by IBM. Herman IT is not totally comparable to other companies, as its data center is still not finished at the time of writing this report.

Renewables & advocacy Initial power consumption is 200 kW, maximum power at first phase is 1,6MW (including infrastructure). Maximum capacity in Herman IT’s complex in Renforsin Ranta premises is about 10MW. Renforsin Ranta houses also the data center of CSC (which is not included in these numbers). Electricity utility was still undecided at the time of Greenpeace’s survey. Therefore renewable energy use and advocacy is not graded here.

Waste heat utilization: A Waste heat is utilized in Renforsin Ranta industrial processes, and possibility of using the heat in district heating network is considered, in cooperation with Kainuun Energia.

Energy efficiency: A Renforsin Ranta data center will use mixed air/water cooling. Free cooling will be active most year: goal is that cooling equipment is active less than three months a year. Cold aisles are installed in the server hall, and the cooling air flow is optimized with special software by IBM. PUE number of the data center is aimed to be 1,1-1,2.

Innofactor Innofactor is a Finnish ICT company that provides Microsoft products, including Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing service. Innofactor sells software solutions for carbon trading.

Despite of repeated contact attempts to Innofactor, the company did not provide Greenpeace any information of company’s energy efficiency performance, and no environmental responsibility information is available on Innofactor’s website.

Tieto Tieto is one of the Europe’s largest IT companies with operations in close to 30 countries, employing more than 18 000 people. Company is based in Helsinki.

Tieto did not provide detailed data to Greenpeace regarding this study, and therefore company’s environmental performance is not graded. However, there is extensive amount of data in company’s website, regarding Tieto’s environmental performance.

Waste heat utilization Tieto is a forerunner in data center waste heat utilization; company’s data center in Sweden started to utilize waste heat in 1978. Tieto’s new Espoo data center utilizes waste heat as well.

GHG policy Tieto has ambitious GHG reduction policy, and provides innovative tools to its customers to reduce GHG emissions. Tieto reports its GHG emissions very openly to Carbon Disclosure Project. Tieto’s braches with more than 50 employees are ISO 14001 and WWF’s Green Office -certified. Energy use in offices, data centers and travelling is reduced annually.

Energy efficiency Tieto’s Espoo data center won Green Enterprise IT -award in 2011. Wired magazine recognized the data center to be one of most energy efficient in the world. Tieto’s goal is to reduce data center electricity use by 8% annually.

TDC TDC is international ICT company, providing server and cloud solutions, as well as wired communications. Former network operator Song Networks is part of TDC since 2004.

Renewables & Advocacy: B TDC operates one data center in Helsinki, with annual consumption of 4426 MWh. TDC purchases its electricity, heating and cooling from Helsingin Energia, which produces 54% of its energy from renewable sources, mostly hydropower. 54% is respectable share amongst Finnish power companies, but there are other ICT companies that purchase only renewable electricity.

Waste heat utilization: F TDC currently does not utilize waste heat from its data centers, nor intends to do so in the future.

Water cooling is technology is used in TDC’s data centers, and free cooling applies during winter months.

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GHG Policy: A TDC has GHG reduction policy, which aims to reduce GHG emissions by 40% by 2020, compared to 2010 levels. For a company of this size, this reduction would be remarkable.

Energy efficiency: B Cold aisles and liquid cooling racks to TDC’s Helsinki data center, however apparently hot aisles are not installed. Free cooling reduces energy use during winter months. TDC provides video conferencing and remote working tools to its customers.

TeliaSonera TeliaSonera is international ICT company, which provides mobile and wired communications, and server and cloud solutions. Company owns and operates a contry-wide mobile network. The company’s ICT-infrastructure is distributed into small units around the country, rather than large concentrated data centers.

Renewables & advocacy: A Annual total electricity consumption of whole company is between 900-1000 GWh. District heating and –cooling are used in data centers. Electricity provider in Finland is Vattenfall, providing 100% ekoenergia-certified hydropower. Vattenfall is large international energy company with major investments in additional RE production.

Waste heat utilization: D TeliaSonera currently does not utilize waste heat in its data centers in Finland and Sweden. Howe10

ver, excess heat is applied in district heating in Moldova, but TeliaSonera has not found an energy company interested of purchasing waste heat in Finland.

Energy efficiency: B Either water cooling is used, applying lake/sea water, or free air cooling in TeliaSonera’s data centers.

Continuous improvements in energy efficiency are made, which have lead to major electricity consumption savings in cooling; in Haningen, Sweden, 30% reduction to cooling electricity use has been reached by efficient air cooling. Some data centers apply free cooling in temperatures below +5C.

3.2 Result summary: usual energy efficiency technologies Server virtualization Virtualization is simulation of server hardware, called virtual machine. Virtualization allows one server to serve several clients, instead of each client having their own server. Data center virtualization allows consolidated workloads, leading to raised levels of utilization and reduced operational, capital, space, power and cooling expenses.

Cold aisles Cold aisles collect the cooling air, usually from under the data center floor, and concentrate it to the front of the server rows, from where the servers utilize it. Aisles prevent mixing cooling air with ambient air in the server room, lowering cooling air temperature and improving efficiency in cooling.

Hot aisles Hot aisles concentrate hot output cooling air from the servers to aisles and leads the hot air directly to air outlet, which prevents the output air to be mixed with ambient air in the server room. This further improves efficiency in cooling.

Modeling of the cooling air flows Most of the companies have optimized air flow in the server room, using virtual modeling. Using virtual modeling is highly recommended, as optimal air flow can be achieved with relatively low investment cost (5000-15000â‚Ź). Virtual modeling requires temperature measurement points, and 3rd party modeling software.

Free cooling Free cooling is method of cooling, which utilizes low ambient air or water from nearby natural water source (lake or sea). Low external air cools the water in the cooling system without the use of a chiller. Free cooling systems in Finland are active for most of the year (usually around 9 months per year). Free cooling is in use in data centers of Ficolo, Fujitsu, Herman IT, TDC and TeliaSonera.

Free cooling is one of the advantages of locating data centers in Finland; less energy is needed for cooling solutions, saving environment and money. Water-side (liquid economizer) free cooling is preferred in locations with sea or lake nearby.

Air-side (air economizer) free cooling is possible too; air quality in Finland is good or excellent in cities, requiring less filtering, however high air moisture during autumn and spring periods might cause extra work to CRAC units. It should be noted however, that free cooling is not completely energy

free; circulating water between server room and external cold source requires energy, and chiller is required during hot summer months.

Custom hardware Fujitsu uses server hardware designed by the company. Herman IT uses server hardware by IBM. Using in-house designed hardware allows high level of optimization in energy use, repairs, and modularity.

Remote work services Remote work allows the workers to work from home, or from another office. This reduces time and energy of traveling.

Video conferencing Video conferencing allows meetings in virtual space rather than all participants physically attending the meeting. This saves time and energy of traveling. Savings can be very significant in multinational organizations.

*

*

*

All studied companies use most of these energy efficiency technologies. Virtualization is used by all companies. Remote work and video conferencing opportunities are offered to customers by all companies. Cold corridors are installed in all data centers. However, hot corridors are not installed by all companies. Also, it is not clear if all companies have optimized air flow inside the server room using computer modeling. Air flow optimization brings great savings in cooling energy at low cost.

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Discussion 4.1 Renewable energy use in Finnish ICT sector Four of the companies (Academica, Ficolo, Fujitsu and TeliaSonera) stated that they have chosen the electricity provider because of the share of renewable energy production. However, the renewable energy production of Fujitsu (Vantaan Energia, 23% renewable production), is not high at all, if compared to Finnish power companies in general. Three of the companies (Academica, Dna and TDC) buy electricity from Helsingin Energia, which has quite high renewable energy share (54%). Ficolo uses 100% renewable wind power from Porin Energia. TeliaSonera’s electricity in Finland is 100% Ekoenergia-certified hydropower.

However, it should be noted that all large-scale hydropower potential in Finland is already in use, and no new hydropower production is possible.

Thus, buying hydropower electricity makes the company’s carbon footprint smaller, but does not reduce the carbon footprint of whole Finnish energy sector – there is less clean electricity to other Finnish consumers. To make the Finnish ICT sector cleaner, ICT companies should actively demand energy companies to build new renewable capacity (wind, small-scale hydro and biomass) to meet the growing needs of ICT sector, like Ficolo has done.

4.2 Does price of electricity promote energy savings?

Energy saving investments have short payback period, in some cases less than six months (like investing into heat/cool corridors in data centers). Most investments are paid completely in two years in form of reduced electricity use. However, electricity savings are often not considered when assessing an investment. Investing 15 000€ for cool corridor might sound expensive, but it brings savings of 40 000€ per year. Sometimes the person who makes 12

the decision on the investment is not aware of the total lifetime savings brought by the investment.

And the IT business is just too profitable to limit the energy use.

4.3 Energy savings in mobile networks Regarding mobile networks, having the network always on at 100% power is very wasteful energy-wise. There are three mobile network providers in Finland, all maintaining their own network. Three networks cover almost all of country’s land area. Network is on and active 24/7. If there is a way to arrange the service in a way, that the network is 100% on when call or data connection is active, major savings can be achieved in mobile networks sector. (Fettweis & Zimmermann, 2008) It is possible to power the mobile network with distributed renewable energy – solar and batteries.

This makes the network more self-sufficient and reliable. After initial investment, no payments for electricity is necessary. In case of large electricity network failure, which might occur due storm damage, which might take weeks to repair. In such case, renewable powered mobile network would stay active.

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Recommendations 5.1 Recommendations for businesses Energy saving investments also save money. When budgeting an investment, the assessment should be based on whole lifecycle of the product. Energy efficiency investments bring major savings in form of reduced electricity use. However, often investment assessments do not include savings from electricity use. Thus, the efficiency investments might be ignored, a decision based on inconclusive information.

Sometimes the premises are rented, not owned

by ICT company. In such cases, overhead costs (heating, cooling) are sometimes fixed and included into the rent. This takes away any incentive from ICT company to invest in any equipment that would reduce the need for fixed heating/cooling. In such cases, a reduction of rent could be negotiated with landlord, as efficiency investments save costs of both parties.

Infrastructure has much longer life cycle than servers themselves. Cooling systems can be used for 10 years or more. In case of malfunction, the whole system does not need to be replaced completely, just the faulty part. This should be considered when making investments; energy efficient cooling solution might save much more in long run than energy efficient server.

Network bandwidths have become very fast, and it is questionable if more bandwidth means better service to customer anymore. Full HD video can be streamed with bandwidth of 4-8 megabits per second. 4G network is planned to have bandwidth of 100 mbit/s for high mobility user (person travelling with car of train) and 1 Gbit/s for walking or stationary user. For common user, it is hard to imagine any need for 1Gbit/s network access. In future, instead of offering customers more bandwidth, companies should improve quality of their service by offering more diverse services, better network reception, etc.

5.2 Recommendations for policy makers and public sector Government could be more supportive of building data centers in Finland. Finland and Scandinavia is very good option for data center location: affordable renewable electricity is available in abundant quantities, cool climate reduces need for cooling, infrastructure is in excellent condition, and even real estates are available that could house server farms (e.g. old paper factories). However, Finnish government gives no support of starting such businesses. If major internet companies plan to move to Nordic region, and is planning an investment to renewable energy and energy saving innovations, government could give a tax reduction to company’s energy tax. This reduction should be related to energy-saving investments and/or renewable energy investments. Reduction could be linked to data center’s PUE-number, for example.

Currently, the companies receive no public incentive for energy efficient investments. A temporary incentive could be given to companies making such investments. Such investment should correlate gained efficiency. For example, if a company reduces PUE measure from 2,0 to 1,5, a company might get reduced electricity tax for period of two years.

A public instance should centralize its ICT systems as much as possible.. There is little point of having parallel servers for health services, education, police, fire brigade, etc. Nowadays all different public ICT projects are considered and implemented individually. The end result might be many different systems, created by different companies, which might be incompatible with each other. This is highly inefficient.

Competitive bidding of public ICT projects is somewhat restricted process. Consulting company, which gives specifications of a public project, 13

usually does assessment first, and report of the assessment is given to bidding competition. The specification might be incompatible with individual bidders hardware. For example: Rittal’s cooling infrastructure can operate with cooling water at 17 C. If project is specified to need cooling water at 10 C, at bidding phase Rittal’s system seems falsely inefficient. Thus, the assessment phase should be more open and consider different hardware options.

at Espoo), it could be designed to use lower temperature water. District heating networks at Sweden uses geothermal heat, which is 70C. Energy companies should prepare for future; more data centers are will be built in future, meaning more waste heat available. Also geothermal heating might come to large-scale heat source in Finland. This should be considered when planning new district heating infrastructure.

Using waste heat from data center is efficient solution, which reduces need for district heating power.

Using industrial waste heat is beneficial for Finnish society as a whole, as it is helps to meet Finland to meet it’s energy efficiency goals as well as saves energy and money in the long run. However, utilizing waste heat might require expensive infrastructure investments for local energy provider.

Thus, not all local energy companies are interested of purchasing and delivering waste heat from ICT companies. In such case, government should act as an arbitrator, and possibly give some incentive (tax relief, direct investment support, etc.) to any necessary infrastructure project.

If waste heat utilization in district heating is not feasible, it could also be utilized in low heat industrial processes. Low heat water (11-17 C) could be utilized in melting of snow in wintertime in cities for example.

5.3 Recommendations for energy companies Data centers make excess heat, in form of water below 100C. In Helsinki, district heating network uses water at 100C. Thus, some companies reported trouble of selling excess heat to local energy company. Making existing district heating network deliver heat at lower temperature would need very high investment. However, when building district heating network to a new area (for example at Östersundom and Jätkäsaari at Helsinki, Suurpelto 14

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References

Fettweis, G. , Zimmermann, E., 2008.

ICT Energy Consumption – Trends And Challenges. Dresden, Germany: Technical Univesity of Dresden/Vodafone Chair Mobile Communications Systems. [online] 2008.

Available at: https://mns.ifn.et.tu-dresden.de/Lists/nPublications/Attachments/559/Fettweis_G_ WPMC_08.pdf [Accessed 25.8.2012.]

The Climate Group on behalf of the Global eSustainability Initiative (Gesi): SMART 2020. 2008.

Enabling the low carbon economy in the information age [online document].

Available at: http://www.smart2020.org/_assets/files/03_Smart2020Report_lo_res.pdf [Accessed 8.10.2012]

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