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EY, AIT & Borderstep Institute (2025). Assessment of next steps to promote the energy performance and sustainability of data centres in EU, including the establishment of an EU-wide rating scheme. EU Commission. Directorate General for Energy.
For the first time, the technical report provides a comprehensive analysis of energy performance, reporting obligations and optimisation potential in EU data centres – and thus supports the implementation of the European Directive 2023/1791. Discover key findings, challenges and recommendations for policy makers, operators and stakeholders.
DOI: data.europa.eu/doi/10.2833/0828045
EY, AIT & Borderstep Institute (2025). Assessment of the energy performance and sustainability of data centres in EU: First technical report. EU Commission. Directorate General for Energy.
An assessment of the energy efficiency and sustainability of data centres in the EU was carried out for the first time. To this end, data was analysed that was mandatorily reported to the EU by the data centres. Where necessary, the figures were supplemented and evaluated on the basis of sustainability and performance indicators. Data quality and completeness were also scrutinised and suggestions were made as to how the underlying reporting system could be improved.
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Coroamă, V. C., Hinterholzer, S., Dumbravă, O., & Hintemann, R. (2025). Energy Efficiency of Servers. Zürich, Berlin: Roegen Centre for Sustainability & Borderstep Institute.
Data centers are growing rapidly—driven by cloud computing, AI, streaming, and IoT. As data volumes increase, so does energy demand, especially from servers. This study examines the development of server energy efficiency over the past decade and analyzes different device types: general-purpose servers, AI accelerators (GPU/TPU), and specialized ASIC servers, such as those used in cryptocurrency mining.
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Hintemann, R. & Hinterholzer, S. (2022). Data centers 2021. Cloud computing drives the growth of the data center industry and its energy consumption. Berlin: Borderstep Institute.
The energy consumption of data centers continues to increase. At 17 billion kWh, data centers consumed 6.5 % more electricity in 2021 than in 2020. The main reason for the growth in energy consumption is the expansion of cloud data centers in Germany and the associated increase in the number of large data centers.
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Hintemann, R. (2020). Data centers 2018. Efficiency gains are not enough: Data center energy consumption continues to rise significantly. Berlin: Borderstep Institute.
In 2018, the power requirements of data centers in Germany will again increase significantly. Compared with the previous year, the demand for electrical energy by servers and data centers increased by 6% to 14 billion kWh. This is the result of a recent study by the Borderstep Institute on the development of the energy requirements of data centers in Germany.
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Hintemann, R. & Hinterholzer, S. (2019). Energy Consumption of Data Centers Worldwide – How will the Internet become Green? Presented at ICT4S, Lappeenranta, Finland.
This article deals with the questions of whether and to what extent the energy consumptionof data centers have increased in the past and what future developments can be expected. In addition, future challenges to sustainable data center operation will be analyzed. The article deals in particular with the topics of improving the energy efficiency of IT hardware and software, the use of regenerative electricity for the operation of data centers, and the use of waste heat from data centers.
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Hintemann, R., & Hinterholzer, S. (2018). Technology radars for energy-efficient data centers: A transdisciplinary approach to technology identification, analysis and evaluation. Presented at the World Congress on Sustainable Technologies. Cambridge: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).
A technology radar is an instrument for monitoring technology that supports the identification, evaluation and observation of relevant technologies in specific areas. This paper describes how such technology radars are developed in a transdisciplinary process and presents current and future efficiency technologies for data centers.
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Hintemann, R. & Hinterholzer, S. (2018). Innovation alliances for sustainable ICT. Good practices and success factors, using the example of initiatives to improve the energy efficiency of data centers. In B. Penzenstadler, S. Easterbrook, C. Venters and S.I. Ahmed (eds.), ICT4S2018, EPiC Series in Computing, 52, 125-136.
Although the ICT sector is generally considered to be very innovative, deployment of energy- and resource-efficient innovations is frequently confronted with considerable obstacles and barriers. Innovation alliances of companies are a promising instrument of governmental support for new environmental technologies in the fast-paced ICT sector. The present paper analyzes such innovation alliances using the example of energy efficiency in data centers as the field of application.
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Hintemann, R., Beucker, S., Clausen, J., Stobbe, L., Proske, M., & Nissen, N. F. (2016). Energy efficiency of data centers – A system-oriented analysis of current development trends. In EGG 2016+ Proceedings. Berlin: Fraunhofer IZM.
The advancing digitization of all areas of the economy and society is generating significantly increasing demand for processing power. More and more data centers of ever larger size are being built worldwide, and their electricity consumption is constantly on the rise. Forecasts project a significant increase in the global electricity consumption of data centers in the next five years. The paper discusses the development of data centers‘ energy consumption and energy efficiency, using the example of Germany.0707
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Hintemann, R. & Clausen, J. (2016). Green Cloud? The current and future development of energy consumption by data centers, networks and end-user devices. In P. Grosso, P. Lago, & A. Osseyran (Eds.), Proceedings of ICT for Sustainability 2016. Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Atlantis Press.
The present contribution presents current research findings on the energy consumption of data centers, networks and end-user devices in Germany today and through 2025.
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Green Economy