Global heatwaves are creating a new crisis for AI data centres: Here’s how

This year, India and Europe are facing the hottest summers, with temperatures rising to more than 40 degrees. While these countries are battling severe heat waves, other regions have also been impacted. Due to the adverse heat, multiple infrastructure facilities, including factories, nuclear power plants, and AI data centres, are under stress and are facing mounting operational challenges.

Data centres, which are currently in high demand, house thousands of servers and generate enormous amounts of heat even under normal conditions. Due to the heat, their cooling systems must function properly, and at times even harder, increasing electricity consumption and raising the risk of overheating if cooling fails.

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How climate risks can challenge data centre operations

According to a study by First Street, 79% of the world's data centre capacity is exposed to a high risk of climate hazards like wildfire, flood, extreme heat, and others. These events can shut down data centre operations, impact online services, increase repair and maintenance expenses post-damage, and others. 

On the other hand, 64% of the global data centre capacity is currently being built outside of the world's largest data centre hubs as companies are exploring new markets. Countries like Brazil are also seeing rapid growth in data centre construction.

How are data centres battling severe heat conditions

One of the emerging challenges for data centres is to keep them cool amid the rising temperatures. As a result, tech companies are now redesigning their cooling systems to cope with extreme weather. However, it is also increasing the electricity demand. 

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The report highlighted that cooling systems already consume about 40% of a data centre's total electricity under normal operating conditions. Now, during heatwaves, cooling systems have to work even harder, so they use even more electricity. This is also raising the risk of power shortages or blackouts.

Due to the reason, tech companies are being very mindful about choosing locations that are less vulnerable to extreme weather, building redundant infrastructure to reduce operational failure, and they are using real-time monitoring to continuously track temperatures, power usage, and equipment health.