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NEW RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS RESILIENCE RISK AMONG EUROPEAN DATA CENTRES
Mission Critical Report.
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he resilience of data centres across Europe is at risk as the industry looks towards a permanent renewable energy infrastructure, according to a major new report launched by temporary global power and temperature solutions company, Aggreko. The report – Mission Critical – provides unique insight of 700 data centre consultants across the Netherlands, France, Germany, Norway, Sweden, the UK and Ireland, following a survey conducted by independent agency Censuswide on behalf of Aggreko.
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The results found that more than half (55%) of those surveyed expressed at least some concern about the capabilities of the local grid and energy infrastructure’s ability to meet current demand. Among the least confident were respondents in the UK and the Netherlands.
Grid limitations were also the cause of most power outages across the regions for 60% of respondents. This could be one of the reasons for the high take up of renewable technology, with solar (70.4%) and wind (65.4%) popular among Europe. However, while the move towards renewables appears to be gathering pace, a number of barriers to adopting the technology were also highlighted, including energy storage and changing technology. While the uptake in renewables is to be welcomed, it could leave the resilience of data centre facilities at risk, as Chris Rason, UK Managing Director of Aggreko, explains: “Renewable technology is a key driver for the data centre market, and our research shows that both solar and wind are popular technologies. “However, as the use of these technologies increases, the risk to resilience also rises, especially during periods of intermittent energy supply. Energy storage is clearly a concern here, but as the use of diesel generators drops, operators and contractors need to look for greener solutions to ensure back-up power is available during periods of intermittence.” On-site generation is also considered in the report, after more than 60% claimed that power security was a key driver
26 | Industry EMEA | September 2020
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