Features

Pulsant gains recognition for environmental and sustainability initiatives

Pulsant has seen its commitment to environmental and sustainable working practices receive two key industry certifications in recognition of its focus on environmental and sustainability initiatives across its data centre estate and management systems.  Rating in the top 25% of responding businesses, it received a silver medal from EcoVadis, with particular strengths in the area of its environmental practices. This achievement reflects Pulsant's commitment to environmental stewardship and social responsibility. The company has implemented numerous initiatives to reduce its carbon footprint, minimise waste, and promote ethical business practices, including wellbeing and mental health. Furthering its sustainability credentials, its energy management system has been awarded the respected ISO 50001 certification, giving independent assurance to its effectiveness in improving its energy performance. As an operator of a variety of UK data centres, it is working towards an overall PUE of 1.3 by 2030, and is on track to surpass the 2023 target of 1.53, following from the success of a number of initiatives such as consolidation project at Maidenhead site, cold aisle containment, cooling and UPS infrastructure upgrades, and temperature optimisation. Commenting on the news, Helen Munro, Head of Environment and Sustainability at Pulsant, notes, "Sustainability is a key priority at Pulsant. We are committed to continuous improvement across all aspects of our activities, both internally and across our wider supply chain. These certifications highlight that our comprehensive policies and programmes are delivering meaningful results. Credit to the teams across our sites and operations across all parts of the business for making it happen." As the need for improved environmental management intensifies, Pulsant is focused on further minimising its climate impact, with initiatives already underway, including piloting HVO fuelled generators and evolving cooling technologies. “We are currently ahead of the annual targets we set to work towards our 2050 net zero targets, but well aware that we need to continue to push to find new opportunities to improve our carbon footprint and environmental impact in the years ahead. We all have a part to play in safeguarding the planet and we are aware of the role our organisation needs to play in that,” concludes Helen.

Schneider Electric finalises acquisition of EcoAct 

Schneider Electric has announced that it has finalised the acquisition of EcoAct SAS (EcoAct), an international leader in climate consulting and net zero solutions headquartered in Paris, France. The completion of the transaction follows consultation with the relevant employee representative bodies and approval from the competent regulatory authorities.   The acquisition represents the coming together of two best-in-class organisations to accelerate business solutions that deliver true value for both climate and clients. EcoAct’s portfolio of net zero and nature-based products and services, including consulting, climate data tools, and carbon offset project development, will expand and accelerate Schneider Electric’s global Sustainability Business, a provider of advisory services in the areas of energy management, energy efficiency, renewable energy and environmental commodity procurement, sustainability and net zero consulting, climate risk, sustainability communications, and reporting and disclosure.   The joining of the two organisations expands Schneider's capabilities to provide end-to-end solutions that lead organisations through the net zero transformation and beyond. The company’s advisory services support the development of sustainability strategy and target setting through to decarbonisation across scope one, two and three, enhanced by its AI-led portfolio of digital and data management tools.  “We have long admired the team at EcoAct, and bringing our two organisations together will help us to accelerate the ability to serve our clients all over the world,” says Steve Wilhite, President, Sustainability Business. “Companies understand the urgency to act but continue to face complexities, when it comes to decarbonisation. I’m confident that our combined best-in-class teams will help our clients to accelerate even faster towards their net zero ambitions.”  “Urgent climate action is at the heart of our mission, and I know we’ve found the right partner in Schneider Electric,” says Stuart Lemmon, CEO of EcoAct. “The company’s own demonstrated commitments to net zero – in its own operations and for its clients – speaks loudly in the market, and our EcoActors are excited to join together with another leading advisory team, putting climate and nature centre stage to accelerate sustainable corporate transformation.” 

Neterra launches Startup Accelerator program

Neterra has initiated Startup Accelerator program with the aim of nurturing and supporting start-ups. Under this program, it is providing complimentary or substantially reduced services encompassing cloud, colocation, connectivity and cyber security. The neterra.cloud offering is built on cutting-edge Intel(R) Xeon(R) Platinum processors, offering unlimited data traffic and scalable enterprise-class storage solutions. This package also includes free backup, disaster recovery solutions, and DDoS protection for the initial six months. In a bid to further assist innovative start-ups, it grants access to colocation services in its Tier III+ data centres, including EU based Sofia Data Center 1 (SDC 1), Sofia Data Center 2 (SDC 2), SDC Stolnik, and SDC Ruse, coupled with their high-quality carrier-grade connectivity and global internet exchange through the NetIX platform. For the first six months, Neterra covers the expenses, while start-ups are responsible for their electricity costs. Following this initial period, the global telecom extends discounted colocation services starting at starting at 12 euros/1U rack unit/month. Additionally, Neterra is extending consultancy services to program beneficiaries, offering expertise in network architecture, hardware and software recommendations, configuration, best practices, and managed services for cloud, application servers, hosting providers, and more. The current start-up support program is a continuation of its longstanding commitment to assisting start-ups, a tradition that has been upheld since the company's inception nearly three decades ago. Back then, it played a pivotal role in helping numerous internet providers launch and prosper.  In more recent times, Neterra has demonstrated its dedication to supporting start-ups, as exemplified by its involvement with ucha.se, an online learning platform. Founder of ucha.se, Darin Madzharov, crossed paths with Neven Dilkov, Founder of Neterra, through a mentoring program aimed at nurturing and guiding young talents. In the early stages of development, it extended its support by offering complimentary services during the initial months.

nVent rear door coolers offer solution for high-density racks

nVent has announced the launch of its RDHX PRO rear door cooling unit, a new high-performance solution offering the capability to upgrade data centres with up to 83kW high-density racks, meeting the requirements for the growing use of AI-enhanced applications, demands for higher energy efficiency and sustainability, and the need for greater data centre space utilisation. Rear door cooling solutions are increasingly popular as a pay-as-you-go method for retrofitting increased data centre cooling performance, in many cases without the need for additional re-engineering of the existing facility mechanical design. When installed as a primary method of heat removal, rear door coolers eliminate much of the need for mechanical equipment including fans, blowers and CRAHs, to provide a more optimised cooling solution aligned with the exact requirements for individual racks, at the same time reducing noise and energy waste. Bringing flexibility to rack cooling One of the features of RDHX PRO RDC is the ability to operate comfortably with 57°F (14°C) warm water cooling, making it environmentally friendly. By utilising free cooling, the device significantly reduces the amount of energy required to cool the data centre, not only reducing overall data centre power consumption but also the carbon footprint of operations. The future-proofed solution can also be combined with direct-to-chip (D-2-C) liquid cooling deployments, for customers who are moving towards a hybrid approach to cooling, and especially those looking to maximise heat reuse opportunities, combined with NVent’s liquid cooling CDU 800. Maximum compatibility and availability The new rear door cooling units from nVent are offered in a range of standard sizes for use with 42U, 47U, 48U and 52U data centre racks, in both 600mm and 800mm widths. The coolers themselves are 250mm deep, one of the features of rear door coolers is that they are compact and do not require any additional floor space or ceiling headroom, it can free up white space compared to other competitor RDCs and cooling devices CRAH and CRAC units may be eliminated from the data centre. Each unit has a maximum power draw of 1800W and features 12x axial brushless DC fans – more than any competitive unit. However, the large number of fans mean they individually do less work than a smaller number of large fans, reducing stress on the electromechanical devices and increasing their lifecycle. In the event failures do occur, nVent has developed an innovative, tool-less and hot-swappable method for fan replacement as well as other critical components such as PSUs. This feature allows uptime to be maximised at the same time as reducing service callouts and associated costs. For ease of integration with data centre management applications as well as BMS software, the new rear door cooling units also feature a newly designed controller which is compatible with most popular network and control protocols including Web Interface, Ethernet, SNMP, Modbus TCP, RTU, and Redfish. The new RDHX PRO RDC is available from September and will be on demonstration at DCW Paris and SuperComputing in Denver, Colorado, US.

Redefining liquid cooling from the server to the switch

By Nathan Blom, CCO, Iceotope Liquid cooling has long been a focal point in discussions surrounding data centres, and rightfully so, as these facilities are at the epicentre of an unprecedented data explosion. The explosive growth of the internet, cloud services, IoT devices, social media, and AI has fuelled an unparalleled surge in data generation, intensifying the strain on rack densities and placing substantial demands on data centre cooling systems. In fact, cooling power alone accounts for a staggering 40% of a data centre's total energy consumption. However, the need for efficient IT infrastructure cooling extends beyond data centres. Enterprise organisations are also looking for ways to reduce costs, maximise revenue and accelerate sustainability objectives. Not to mention the fact that reducing energy consumption is rapidly becoming one of the top priorities for telcos with thousands of sites in remote locations, making the reduction of maintenance costs key as well. Liquid cooling technologies have emerged as a highly efficient solution for dissipating heat from IT equipment, regardless of the setting. Whether it's within a data centre, on-premises data hall, cloud environment, or at the edge, liquid cooling is proving its versatility. While most applications have centred on cooling server components, new applications are rapidly materialising across the entire IT infrastructure spectrum. BT Group, in a ground-breaking move, initiated trials of liquid cooling technologies across its networks to enhance energy efficiency and reduce consumption as part of its commitment to achieving net zero status. BT kicked off the trials with a network switch cooled using Iceotope’s Precision Liquid Cooling technology and Juniper Networks QFX Series Switches. With 90% of its overall energy consumption coming from networks, it’s easy to see why reducing energy consumption is such a high priority. In a similar vein, Meta released a study last year confirming the practicality, efficiency and effectiveness of precision liquid cooling technology to meet the cooling requirements of high-density storage disks. Global data storage is growing at such a rate there is an increased need for improved thermal cooling solutions. Liquid cooling for high-density storage is proving to be a viable alternative as it can mitigate for variances and improve consistency. Ultimately, it lowers overall power consumption and improves ESG compliance. Liquid cooling technologies are changing the game when it comes to removing heat from the IT stack. While each of the technologies on the market today have their time and place, there is a reason we are seeing precision liquid cooling in trials that are broadening the use case for liquid cooling. It also ensures maximum efficiency and reliability as it uses a small amount of dielectric coolant to precisely target and remove heat from the hottest components of the server. This approach not only eliminates the need for traditional air-cooling systems, but it allows for greater flexibility in designing IT solutions than any other solution on the market today. There are no hotspots that can slow down performance, no wasted physical space on unnecessary cooling infrastructure, and minimal need for water consumption. As the demand for data increases, the importance of efficient and sustainable IT infrastructure cooling cannot be overstated. Liquid cooling, and precision liquid cooling in particular, is at the forefront of this journey. Whether it's reducing the environmental footprint of data centres, enhancing the energy efficiency of telecommunication networks, or meeting the ever-increasing demands of high-density storage, liquid cooling offers versatile and effective solutions. These trials and applications are not just milestones, they represent a pivotal shift toward a future where cooling is smarter, greener, and more adaptable, empowering businesses to meet their evolving IT demands while contributing to a more sustainable world.

UK organisations buckling under huge data security strain

Over a quarter (29%) of European organisations have been unable to fully utilise data within their organisation due to challenges with data security, according to an IDC InfoBrief, sponsored by Immuta.   This data security “gap” is a result of organisations grappling with increasingly complex IT and data infrastructures internally, leading to huge siloes of sensitive data. Businesses must manage this alongside the external risk of rising cyber attacks in Europe, as 58% of UK organisations experienced an increase in cyber attacks in the last 12 months, followed by 49% in DACH and 47% in the Nordics.    According to insights from 108 European organisations, data security is rising rapidly to the top of the CEO’s agenda, 45% will prioritise spend on data security, risk and compliance this year to enable trustworthy data collaboration and sharing, followed by workplace solutions (36%), application development and deployment platforms (35%), infrastructure and operations (33%) and automation technologies (31%).  Organisations must also address a new blind spot caused by shadow data - a side effect of data sprawl in the cloud - with only 42% of European businesses selecting 'confident' or 'highly confident' in their ability to discover and classify sensitive data, both known and unknown, in the public cloud.   Meanwhile, evolving privacy regulations are creating tension between digital innovation and data sovereignty, only 15% of organisations in Europe are highly confident in their ability to discover and classify sensitive data in order to protect it. Additionally, when managing compliance with GDPR, the biggest challenges facing organisations stem from identifying and mapping personal data (41%), creating data protection by design (40%), data retention and deletion (38%) and data security (35%).  In the UK, organisations cited working from home and hybrid work as the top operational security priority for 2023, followed by cyber resilience of systems and data privacy and regulatory compliance. 58% described their organisation as 'confident' or 'highly confident' in its ability to discover and classify sensitive data, both known and unknown, in the public cloud - a significant increase on the European average (42%). 56% of UK organisations will expand or upgrade technology related to data access and governance in the next 12 months. “The reality is that organisations are typically operating with data spread across multiple platforms and locations, all whilst navigating a rapidly evolving privacy and regulatory landscape,” says Colin Mitchell, General Manager, Immuta. “Data is a critical asset for organisations, enabling collaboration, innovation and informing decisions. However, as data usage increases, businesses need to manage unauthorised access, breaches and misuse. This creates a complex dynamic between data utility — the usefulness and accessibility of data — and the security and compliance measures in place to protect data from risks.”   Looking ahead, organisations are exploring ways to build trust in data by streamlining their security operations and rationalise their existing security tool environment, 49% of respondents all working within security plan to expand or upgrade implementation of data access controls in the next 12 months. Nearly a third of European organisations (32%) also intend to increase spend on data discovery and classification to overcome challenges of complexity.  The IDC InfoBrief sets out how convergence to a data security platform enhances sensitive data protection across hybrid multi-cloud environments, while enabling authorised users to effectively utilise the data for business purposes. The full findings of the IDC Data Security Infobrief can be found here. 

Salesforce standardises global hybrid cloud infrastructure

Red Hat has announced that Salesforce is standardising its global hybrid cloud infrastructure on Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Helping the company to drive business transformation at scale to meet customer demand, Red Hat Enterprise Linux provides a more flexible and consistent foundation for security enhanced hybrid cloud deployments. The platform enables Salesforce to free up valuable developer resources, while at the same time consolidating IT systems, all helping to generate better business outcomes for customers.  Salesforce is a customer-centric, innovation-driven provider of cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM) systems, using a SaaS model to support a robust customer base. Over the years, Salesforce has continued to grow and evolve its offerings to incorporate breakthrough technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI), automated self-service tools and real-time data insights to support customer business needs. In doing so, Salesforce relies on a massive IT footprint that spans hundreds of thousands of systems running in traditional data centre environments and in hyperforce, its platform architecture designed for the public cloud. With the migration, Salesforce intends to gain even more efficiency in its IT operations, enhancing developer productivity and fuelling greater innovation across the customer experience. Red Hat Enterprise Linux offers the necessary stability for modern IT workloads and enterprise-grade hybrid cloud deployments, enabling organisations to run applications anywhere while providing ease of management across on-premises and cloud environments. By migrating its global infrastructure from CentOS Linux to Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Salesforce seeks to realise key benefits such as: Optimised performance and efficiency across various hardware and software architectures, including ARM, which enables Salesforce engineering teams to more easily adopt breakthrough technologies without incurring new infrastructure demands. Meeting customers where they are with a hardened platform that can drive more consistent innovation across the hybrid cloud, from the data centre to public clouds to the edge, with the capacity to support unique customer use cases regardless of location or scale. Improved system security measures with Red Hat Enterprise Linux’s layered approach to IT environment security, including support for many of the latest cryptographic and secure computing innovations. Enhanced customer support experiences through Red Hat’s support team, enabling Salesforce engineering to focus on delivering customer value without being bogged down in the minutiae of managing an operating system at cloud-scale.

Busting cloud myths and embracing the advantages

By Josh Boer, Vice President of Sales at VeUP The modern workforce is swiftly embracing digitisation, driven in large part by the pandemic's influence on remote work adoption and the demand for streamlined supply chains. As we move forward, worldwide public cloud end-user spending, forecasted by Gartner, is set to soar to nearly $600bn in 2023, surpassing the $491bn spent in 2022. From global corporations to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), the adoption of cloud computing is becoming a cornerstone for operational modernisation and securing a competitive edge. However, in the midst of this transformative journey, some concerns about cloud security have risen. In fact, over half of IT and security leaders admit to lacking confidence in their organisations' ability to verify cloud environment security, while others express fears of exposing critical data to cyber threats. Is the cloud secure for SMEs? Clearing the fog of uncertainty around cloud security is pivotal to instil confidence in businesses. SMEs often worry that storing data in the cloud sacrifices their control over its management and security. Contrary to this notion, cloud providers offer 24/7 data access and provide scalable tools for protection. Security features, including comprehensive monitoring systems and data safeguarding, are fundamental aspects of cloud security. The truth is, businesses retain control over their data even after migration to the cloud. While the choice of a cloud provider doesn't dictate all aspects of data storage and security, customers have full access to their information and the autonomy to make decisions regarding its protection. Depending on specific features and services employed, encryption methods and data classification can be tailored to individual needs. Cloud maturity: trusting the evolution The belief that cloud computing is too new to trust is another misconception. While AWS debuted in 2004, nearly two decades of evolution have transformed it into a global cloud leader, boasting an array of over 200 comprehensive services accessible through data centres worldwide. Serving clients from startups to government entities, AWS has nurtured a user base that relies on its platform to enhance agility, drive down costs, and expedite innovation. In this context, SMEs can tap into a suite of tailored services catering to their unique organisational requirements. Estimates from Synergy Research Group revealed that Amazon’s market share in the worldwide cloud infrastructure market stood at 32% in the second quarter of 2023, down from 34% a year ago, but still above its rivals Microsoft and Google. While short-term economic challenges and belt-tightening measures may impact spending on cloud services, the resilience and customer-centric approach of AWS provides assurance. Its proven track record of commitment to building strong customer relationships also highlights its ability to weather economic downturns and thrive in the long run. Harnessing cloud benefits for SMEs Amplifying business agility: Cloud technology empowers SMEs to swiftly navigate market shifts through scalable resources. Leveraging cloud solutions, SMEs can pivot operations, seize new opportunities, and employ cloud-enabled disaster recovery and backup strategies to weather disruptions with minimal downtime. Trimming legacy IT expenses: Contrary to the misconception that cloud migration is costly and unnecessary, cloud computing dramatically reduces IT infrastructure costs. By eliminating the need for physical hardware and infrastructure management, cloud computing shifts costs to the cloud service provider, enabling businesses to pay only for the resources they use. Empowering remote accessibility: Cloud solutions facilitate remote work by providing seamless access to applications and data from anywhere with an internet connection. This not only fosters a culture of remote collaboration, but also reduces the necessity for physical office spaces, utilities, and commuting expenses, yielding additional cost savings. As the world emerges from the pandemic and businesses ponder the return to physical workplaces, cloud computing, which proved instrumental in enabling remote work during the crisis, continues to be pivotal. Facilitating hybrid work models, cloud computing ensures consistent access to collaborative tools, documents, and data, striking a balance between productivity, collaboration, and employee preferences. Fostering an evergreen technology landscape: Cloud services enable SMEs to maintain an evergreen technology stack by harnessing continuous updates and innovations without the burdens of costly and time-consuming hardware upgrades. This transformative approach keeps technology consistently cutting-edge, fostering resilient and forward-looking IT infrastructures free from the constraints of physical hardware's lifecycle. Closing thoughts As discussions of the return to physical offices grow louder, and the impending news that cloud costs are expected to increase by 10% this year, it's critical to address these concerns and shed light on the truths of cloud security. The shift to the cloud remains more than a trend - it's a seismic transformation affording SMEs capabilities to enhance their overall competitiveness and efficiency, facilitating unified communications across the board and cutting down expenses over the likes of IT infrastructure maintenance costs. Click here for more latest news.

Is on-premise hydrogen production for greenhouse gas abatement a viable option?

By Joe Sheehan, Technical Director, i3 Solutions Group With green hydrogen widely touted as the most desirable option for achieving climate change goals, the debate is heating up in the data centre sector, where proponents of hydrogen believe it could well be an ideal primary power source for putting the sector on a path to net zero. But if hydrogen is the answer, there are important issues to address, not the least of which the necessary changes to the utility power and gas infrastructure. Additionally, we urgently need to gather data on the greenhouse gas (GHG) abatement benefits that might accrue from data centres using hydrogen. For a data centre, the real GHG abatement value of hydrogen lies in decarbonising the electricity supply - swapping out the utility grid for primary power and using green hydrogen to fuel engines or fuel cells for continuous use. This would take the data centre’s electrical consumption and replace it with a genuine source of renewable energy, since hydrogen causes no carbon emissions in use and green hydrogen is generated using only power from renewable sources. But achieving such a goal brings its own challenges. While many countries have developed a strategy for hydrogen, the hydrogen economy itself – in the form of production, transport and storage - is just not here yet. Practically no location yet supplies infrastructure or any piped hydrogen. It is certainly not yet possible to bring in vessels containing compressed hydrogen at a sufficient volume and rate to provide for full and continuous operation of a modern data centre. One obvious solution to this challenge could be for data centres and other energy intensive users to become both hydrogen producers and storage facilities. However, there isn’t currently a viable on-site source of clean energy that would produce green hydrogen by electrolysis of water. Where could such an energy supply come from? One possible answer is for data centres to tap into a renewable power grid and utilise such a grid’s surplus energy for the production of green hydrogen. When the wind is blowing or the sun is shining and/or demand is low, taking electricity from Renewable Energy Resources (RERs) means the carbon emissions associated with each kilowatt hour of energy supply are low. And in the opposite circumstances – when the wind is not blowing, the sun is not shining, and electrical demand is high – data centres could operate using its own reserves of locally stored green hydrogen rather than the utility grid topping up capacity using fossil-fuelled power plants to fulfil demand. Use of hydrogen stored on-site for peak shaving at times of high demand and low renewable supply levels out demand on the grid. This is a form of carbon trade-off, since drawing less power from the grid reduces the use of fossil fuels, achieving a net gain in emissions reduction. But is the round-trip efficiency, using this strategy good enough to achieve a meaningful advantage? Modelling the carbon benefits The big question is whether on-site hydrogen production is economically and spatially viable and offers affordable benefits in terms of greenhouse gas abatement. Using carbon intensity data which is publicly available from grid networks in the UK and Ireland, i3 built a mathematical model of the process and measured what GHG abatement benefits it might bring about. It factored in the storage and technology that would be necessary, with the model using a nominal 10MW data centre in different locations. The model showed the returns are quite modest in terms of carbon emission reductions in places like Scotland, where there are a lot of renewables on offer. It is possible to reduce by about 10% a data centre’s energy or carbon emissions - approximately 500 tonnes of carbon per year. Interestingly, the percentage reduction in the southeast of the UK was smaller, but that worked out to be the same carbon reduction in absolute terms because there is higher grid carbon intensity in the region. In other words, the carbon costs are higher, so a smaller percentage reduction is an equivalent saving. These modest returns need to be weighted against the cost of applying the hydrogen technology to data centres at sufficient scale. The i3 model provides useful insight about the need to coordinate with grid-level facilities. It has also aided understanding of how battery energy storage, and in future, hydrogen, could be used in conjunction with the grid for a range of technologies, including various forms of energy storage and electricity demand reduction in data centres. The tool developed can be applied to data centre designs for many types of energy storage systems and reveal what potential benefits they bring about in terms of carbon reduction. The amount of activity in the hydrogen market, from production to transport to storage is accelerating. The biggest cost is green hydrogen production, for which excess renewable energy is required. However, it is projected that these costs will come down. Some point to conditions where because grids are integrating increasing amounts of power generated using renewable energy sources this will lead to excess capacity at times of low user demand, making more clean energy available for electrolysis. In addition, the huge growth in the scale of electrolyser production will aid the speed at which the economics of green hydrogen production will swing in favour of the consumer. As green hydrogen becomes more available, the economies of scale will start to improve, making hydrogen a more viable fuel source for electricity for powering data centres. Production value Like many countries, the UK is a long way from a national hydrogen gas transport network (pipes), and therefore local production in data centres and other energy intensive industries should be considered. Designing and developing data centres with hydrogen in mind needs to happen. We can future-proof data centres for the growth of hydrogen production and supply, for example, by specifying the use of reciprocating engines or fuel cells which can be run using hydrogen as well as other fuels in data centre designs. Click here for more latest news.

Hyperscale data centres key to driving APJ’s energy transition

As corporations and governments pursue the challenge of achieving a low-carbon future in Asia Pacific & Japan (APJ), AirTrunk has released its ‘Powering a Clean Energy Future’ report that identifies hyperscale data centres as key drivers in APJ’s energy transition to 24/7 clean energy (CE). The report highlights how a hyperscale data centre’s size, electricity demand profile, innovation capabilities and proven experience in procuring renewable energy puts them in a prime position for partnership to accelerate the transition. Through energy system modelling, the report also determines the most effective technology pathways and costs to reaching 24/7 (CE), providing holistic analysis of what is required. AirTrunk's Head of Energy and Climate, Joscha Schmitz, says, “24/7 clean energy is crucial to achieving climate targets by fully decarbonising power grids. As the major hyperscale data centre provider in APJ, we released this report with the intention to build momentum towards achieving 24/7 clean energy in the region.” “24/7 clean energy is more advanced in the European and North American markets due to resource availability and market maturity. The report outlines opportunities to successfully deliver clean energy technology in APJ, which is the fastest growing region, but the one experiencing the most difficulty in managing the energy transition,” says Joscha. The report recognises the need for more industry collaboration and highlights the six steps key industry players and governments must do to fully realise the potential of 24/7 CE in APJ, including: Increase and strengthen grid interconnection between markets Accelerate ‘green molecules’ and other new firming and storage technologies Diversify renewables portfolio with local firming solutions Leverage on-site infrastructure to support local grids and power markets Shift non-latency-sensitive loads to lower cost markets Start the discussion to achieve 24/7 clean energy in a cost-optimal way AirTrunk's Chief Technology Officer, Damien Spillane, says, “Major corporations and governments in APJ have made significant emissions reductions commitments, however in the current climate, it remains challenging to achieve these. That’s why we are calling on energy providers, sustainability groups, corporations and governments to work together, and with us, to facilitate a clean energy future for all.” “We take our responsibility as a key enabler of the transition seriously and will continue to focus our efforts on decarbonisation as we progress toward net zero emissions by 2030,” says Damien. The ‘Powering a Clean Energy Future’ report can be downloaded here. Click here for more latest news.