How the Data Centre Industry is Tackling its Energy Problem

The data centre industry is changing faster than at any point in its history. And nowhere is that pressure felt more acutely than in the battle to secure enough energy to keep pace with soaring AI demand.

This subject was a central feature of the ‘AI Data Centre Debate’, one of the standout sessions at Data Centre LIVE: The London Summit, held in London on 19-20 May.

The panel brought together Lonnie Salmon, Senior Director at Jabil, Jean-François Berche, CTO at GreenScale, Alex Bennett, CEO of NTT Global Data Centers, and Jamie Allen, Head of Site Selection at Iron Mountain – all ready to tackle the big issues.

Alex set the tone early, capturing the relentless pace of change the sector is navigating. "The rules have been rewritten and continue to be rewritten every three months," he said.

Nowhere is this more evident than in AI’s relationship with energy. With records for data centre size seemingly falling every two or three months, the sector is demanding a huge amount of power.