Data Center Emissions & Personal Responsibility

AUSTIN, TX / ACCESSWIRE / July 9, 2024 / David Goodnight of Austin, Texas, is the Founder of Comnet International. David highlights the challenges within the energy transition, including cloud storage, AI computing, and data center emissions.

While conventional energy is continuously under attack, everyone with a smartphone is responsible for a significant and growing volume of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions via data centers servicing social feeds and cloud storage. Data centers are a largely unpublished participant of GHG emissions and an accelerating public relations challenge for major tech companies and all businesses ​developing or incorporating AI into daily operations.

Cloud data and intensive computing are stored in gigantic structures filled with thousands of hard drive-bearing racks drawing a tremendous amount of energy, typically fossil sourced, and clean water to keep the equipment cool. Data centers are responsible for 2% of overall U.S. Greenhouse Gas emissions, when laptops and smartphones are included, the volume now exceeds 2% of global emissions. For comparison, the global fuel oil market is 3.6%, this is only the fuel that is responsible for marine transport. The total global electricity consumption from data centers is expected to climb as high as 1,000,000 GW hours by 2026.

Every data center is exploding with demand and equally correlated emissions. One companies' emissions surged nearly 50% compared to 2019 according to its 2024 environmental report. A significant setback in its goal to achieve net-zero emissions by 2030. Anyone ​other than an uncontacted tribesman who attacks ​data centers is simply a hypocrite, knowingly or unknowingly​.​ There is so much chatter and extreme policymaking surrounding the energy transition that society has lost touch with the definition of the word transition; it will take time, innovation, and considerable investment to reach net-zero that does not include crafty greenwashing. Dozens of major corporations and government bodies are making capital-intensive efforts on a daily basis to reduce their GHG footprint by supporting advancements in technology and critical calibration of existing solutions.

The AI market is expected to reach almost $2 trillion by 2030 which equates to modular data center growth of $25 billion to $81 billion. Yes, technology is scary, in fact, more people are afraid of robots than they are of their own death, and current technology has barely scratched the surface of the data and power demand of AI operated robots in our everyday lives.

When telephones were introduced in the late 1800s, the New York Times was quick to attack. One contributor went so far as to say that society would become "nothing but transparent heaps of jelly to each other." Another insisted that it would make society lazy and anti-social. Humorous predictions that are far truer in today's world of social media and the growing preference for emoji driven text messages over all other forms of communication.

Factoring in the current anti-social growth among society, the same people attacking agriculture, aviation, or gas fired power stations that coincidentally charge their EV and smartphone may need a reality check as putting down your phone or saving that video to your private hard drive will reduce an individual's personal emissions footprint. Thankfully, our world is brimming with brilliant minds and well-intentioned corporations that will eventually allow us to use the best of AI and watch as many social streams as we choose without Greenhouse guilt.

Presently, Comnet International is advising two separate patent holding technology companies. The first is a new method to generate hydrogen that is vastly more efficient and far more stable. The second is a cooling technology that will reduce the need for water and power for all data centers globally by a significant volume. Comnet anticipates that each complimentary technology will have small scale commercial plants online in Q2 of 2025. Pilot facilities have been operating flawlessly for over 1 year. Comnet recognizes that the ultimate goal is to escape this period of "transition" and pivot to a time of net-zero permanence.

An exciting idea that was recently explored and EU-funded is the ASCEND project, the exploration of space data centers powered by solar energy. ASCEND aims to deploy 13 space data centers into low orbit, with a capacity of 10 MW, by 2036. Each data center would measure nearly 70,000 square feet. Unfortunately, a 1 MW space data center could require 600,000 pounds of rocket fuel per year to keep it in a low orbit.

Several corporations are exploring subsea data centers that could have the same impact without the rocket fuel demand. It would be an outstanding achievement if subsea facilities were powered utilizing wave technology installed by WaveFarm or one of the other dozen companies attempting to harness the largest untapped renewable energy source on the planet, that being the continuous motion of the ocean.

Geothermal took a massive leap this quarter. Fervo entered a world-record energy contract with one the largest utility providers in California to support Fervo's geothermal technology. Fervo chose to embrace techniques from the oil and gas industry to break up rocks, drive water through them horizontally (fracking), and collect the resultant steam to drive turbines at the surface. Historically, geothermal has been generated by drilling vertical bores that deliver water into the hot rocks lying beneath the Earth's surface, a near identical protocol to conventional oil. Geothermal has been restricted to very specific geographies for the past century, but the Fervo program will undoubtably accelerate the potential for geothermal power in several new regions, such as Texas and Argentina, where fracking is embraced in the shale basins.

Comnet plans to engage with corporations and governments to assist in servicing the global demand for data processing. Collectively, Comnet is certain that several advancements and new methodologies will keep our skies and oceans uninhabited by our need for computing.

David Goodnight of Austin, Texas, is the Founder and Managing Partner of The Goodnight Group and Comnet International. The Goodnight Group is an investor-developer and Comnet International is a project finance, technology, and trade advisor. Both companies have separate interests in piloting the world forward with new ideas and financing solutions.

Media Contact:
Company Names: Comnet International & The Goodnight Group
Contact Person: David Goodnight
City & Country: Austin, Texas, USA
Email: media@comnetlimited.com
Websites: www.comnetlimited.com and www.goodnightgroup.com
Twitter: https://x.com/goodnighttexas
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-goodnight-65864b237/

SOURCE: Comnet International & The Goodnight Group