The Future of Data Centers Is Green, Says NTT India’s Data Center Head
Data centers currently account for 3% of the world’s total power consumption. Because of high power consumption, companies are moving towards green data centers that use renewable energy. They are energy-efficient and have lower environmental footprints. NTT has announced plans to invest heavily in its Indian data center business over the next three years, with a focus on green data centers.
NTT India also made its first 50-000-kW captive solar photovoltaic power plant operational in Solapur, Maharashtra in collaboration with the Tata Power Renewable Energy Company to fulfill 50% of all energy needs of the Mumbai data centers.
Green data centers and sustainability
Talking to CXOToday about green data centers and how the company is boosting sustainability, Vimal Kaw, Head-Data Center Services, NTT Ltd. in India, said, “We are leveraging renewable energy sources such as wind and solar to increasingly power our India data centers,” said Kaw informing that recently
“This power plant will be able to meet 83% of power needs of our Mumbai data centers. Further, a second power plant is also under construction which will soon add another 50,000 kW of solar power to our capabilities. We also have a 20 MW captive wind solar plant in Karnataka to power our data centers in Bangalore,” he said.
NTT is also using renewable energy through open access in cities like Noida and Chennai and plans to build its own power plants in these cities (and also Bangalore) in future. Our goal is to ensure 100% renewable energy generation in the years to come.
The company has been recognized by 451 Research as the No. 1 data center service provider in the country. NTT’s Global Data Centers and Cloud Infrastructure (India) division operates with 10 data centres across four major cities with 1.5 million square feet and over 150 MW of power capacity and has India’s first and largest operational hyperscale Data Center Park in Mumbai.
Taking the AI route
In order to efficiently fulfill its mission to build more green data centers, the company has taken the artificial intelligence route.
Talking about leveraging AI-based systems to reduce energy consumption, Kaw said, “We are constantly focusing on consolidating servers and upgrading old and energy inefficient IT infrastructure with new AI-driven smart systems to optimize energy consumption in our data centers. This helps in superior air flow management and is of great impact as 25% of all power consumed by a DC is used only in-cooling.
AI technologies can improve data center efficiency, reduce energy usage, save costs and contribute to a sustainable future.
“As a part of our sustainability efforts, we are going to invest significant amounts in creation of an advanced AI system which will further reduce power consumption at our data centers.”
The AI adoption is required at a time when the company is more bullish on its expansion plans. Kaw said NTT plans to invest $100 million on building the renewable energy power plants in India. The company is leveraging renewable energy sources to power data centers in other markets like Bengaluru, Noida and Chennai at present and future plans towards going 100% green in all key markets.
“We are currently purchasing Third Party Renewable Energy through open access to support the power needs of our data centers in India. Our goal is to operate our Data Centers on 80% Green Power across India in the future,” Kaw said.
“We will be building more wind and solar power facilities for our data centers across India,” he summed up, adding that the company has plans to build more wind-solar power plants in other areas as well.
