Learnings and Takeaway's:
- We are facing a serious (global) power availability problem mainly in big cities and transmission problem in rural areas because of the energy transition and rise of the data-economy. There is an urgent need for next generation power grid with more decentralization, smarter balancing of the grid, increasing efficiency, & greening of/by ICT.
- Problem is more complex than energy companies present. Urgent need for a tighter dialogue and collaboration between data centers and energy stakeholders (incl. gov.) and more thinking/planning ahead of energy and data infrastructure (spatial planning).
- Data centers have become part of a vital infrastructure for banks, healthcare institutions, hospitals, etc. Awareness of policymakers, administrators but also the public need to be raised. “Don’t think in terms of threats, but in terms of opportunities”.
- The social / human effect of digitalization (in daily life) but also the effect on spatial and energy planning are still though underexposed and need to be investigated in relation with energy use.
- We need not only to focus on energy efficiency (PUE) but also on energy savings in data centers and explore the social and economic impacts of power storage
- Stockholm is offering datacenters a good climate for economic development; energy transition and spatial planning with attention to legislation, funding, IPR, procurement, technical platforms (the City as a platform), (higher) education, culture and leadership.
- Interesting learnings from the EU Code of Conduct of Datacenters (best practices) and the EU Catalyst project.
The presentation of the Stockholm study trip can be found below.