800,000 families.
That's the number of Italian households that could be heated every winter by data center waste heat. Heat that today, in most cases, is simply dispersed into the atmosphere.
We're facing an energy paradox that tells us much about our times: while desperately seeking clean energy sources, we're throwing away terawatts of perfectly usable heat.
The Problem We Can No Longer Ignore
Data centers are the invisible factories of the digital economy. Every time you send an email, stream a video, or ask a voice assistant something, somewhere in the world a server activates, processes data, and produces heat.
A lot of heat.
A single server rack can generate as much as a small apartment. A hyperscale data center? As much as an entire residential neighborhood. And demand is exploding.
The projections are impressive:
- By 2035, data centers could consume 13% of Italian electricity
- Artificial intelligence growth is accelerating this trajectory
- Every query to an advanced AI model consumes 10 times more energy than a traditional Google search
We're not talking about a future problem. It's already here.
An Impossible Equation?
On one hand, we need more computational power. AI, cloud, IoT, digital services: everything requires increasingly large and powerful data centers.
On the other, we have climate commitments to meet. Europe wants to be carbon neutral by 2050. Italy has stringent intermediate targets.
How do we reconcile these two needs? This is where the Green Data Center concept comes in.
What "Green Data Center" Really Means
The term is often misused, confused with a few solar panels on the roof. In reality, a true Green Data Center is an integrated system that optimizes every aspect of energy consumption.
1. Energy Efficiency (PUE)
Power Usage Effectiveness is the key metric. It measures how much total energy is needed to run servers compared to energy used for actual computing.
| PUE | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 2.0 | 50% of energy goes to cooling and infrastructure |
| 1.5 | Good efficiency |
| 1.2 | Excellent (best hyperscalers) |
| 1.0 | Theoretically perfect (unattainable) |
Traditional data centers have PUE around 1.8-2.0. New green facilities aim for 1.2-1.3. This difference can translate into millions of euros in annual savings and thousands of tons of avoided CO2.
2. Renewable Sources
The cleanest energy is what you don't produce. But what you produce must be renewable.
Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) are becoming the standard: long-term contracts with wind and solar energy producers that guarantee green supply and stable prices.
In Puglia, this is a strategic advantage. The region has one of Italy's highest concentrations of renewable plants, making PPAs more accessible and affordable.
3. Innovative Cooling
Traditional air conditioning cooling is an energy-hungry dinosaur. Modern alternatives include:
Free cooling: when outside air is cold enough, it's used directly. In Mediterranean climates, this works for much of the year.
Liquid cooling: servers are cooled with liquids that absorb heat much more efficiently than air.
Immersion cooling: components are literally immersed in dielectric fluids. It sounds like science fiction, but it's already reality in the most advanced data centers.
4. Heat Recovery: The Game Changer
And here we come to the point I care most about: heat recovery.
A data center produces enormous amounts of heat at 30-40°C. Too low to generate electricity, but perfect for:
- Heating residential buildings and offices
- Powering agricultural greenhouses
- Heating public swimming pools
- Drying food products
- Preheating water for industrial processes
In Denmark and Sweden, data center-powered district heating is already reality. In Stockholm, a single data center heats 10,000 apartments. In Helsinki, they aim to cover 40% of the city's heat needs with data centers by 2030.
In Italy? We're still at early experiments. But the potential is enormous.
The numbers speak clearly: 2 million tons of CO2 could be avoided every year if we systematically recovered heat from Italian data centers.
The Italian Case: Challenges and Opportunities
Italy has unique characteristics that make Green Data Centers both a challenge and an opportunity.
The Challenges
Power grid: the transmission infrastructure needs significant upgrades to handle concentrated hyperscale data center loads.
Bureaucracy: obtaining permits for new facilities can take years. In a sector where speed is everything, this is a competitive brake.
Skills: specialized technicians are lacking. Universities are adapting curricula, but it takes time.
The Opportunities
Climate: the Mediterranean offers average temperatures favorable to free cooling for much of the year.
Renewables: Southern Italy has among Europe's highest solar and wind potential.
Position: Puglia, in particular, is the natural landing point for submarine cables connecting Europe, Africa, and Asia.
Incentives: the PNRR and European funds offer significant support for investments in sustainable digital infrastructure.
What Companies Can Do
If you manage or use data center services, here's how to contribute to the green transition:
As Data Center Operators
-
Measure everything. You can't improve what you don't measure. Implement granular energy monitoring systems.
-
Invest in efficiency. Every PUE point saved is money in your pocket and avoided CO2.
-
Explore heat recovery. Collaborate with local utilities, municipalities, agricultural companies. The heat you disperse has value.
-
Choose green suppliers. PPAs for renewable energy are increasingly competitive.
As Cloud Service Users
-
Ask for transparency. What are your provider's sustainability metrics? If they can't answer, that's a signal.
-
Consider geography. Where do your data physically reside? A data center in a region with green energy has different impact than one powered by coal.
-
Optimize code. Inefficient software means more servers, more energy, more emissions. Efficiency is also an environmental choice.
-
Evaluate local providers. The global giant isn't always the best choice. Regional providers can offer more sustainable and transparent solutions.
The Future Is Circular
The vision we must aim for is circular economy applied to digital.
A future data center:
- Produces computational services using renewable energy
- Recovers generated heat and distributes it to the community
- Recycles end-of-life hardware responsibly
- Contributes positively to the territory hosting it
It's not utopia. It's already possible with current technologies. Only the will to implement it at scale is missing.
Puglia's Role in This Transition
The Puglia Data Center Valley has the opportunity—and responsibility—to become a European reference model for sustainable data centers.
The ingredients are there:
- Abundance of renewable energy
- Favorable climate
- Strategic position
- Incoming investments
- A community ready to seize the opportunity
As ITH, our commitment is to promote technological innovation that is not only powerful but also responsible. Because the digital future must be sustainable by definition, not by exception.
What to Do Starting Tomorrow
-
If you're a decision-maker: put sustainability in your IT supplier selection criteria.
-
If you're a technician: train on energy efficiency best practices. It's an increasingly requested skill.
-
If you're a citizen: ask for transparency. Where does the heat from the data center in your city go?
The Green Data Center challenge isn't just technical. It's cultural. And it's won one company, one project, one decision at a time.
Want to learn more about sustainable data center solutions? Contact us for a consultation. ```