Sustainability, Water and Energy Efficiency
Measuring and reducing the energy, water and carbon footprint of data centers: efficiency metrics, power and cooling efficiency, IT efficiency, water, carbon accounting, 24/7 clean energy, heat reuse, embodied carbon and reporting.
DCE-460 Year 4 3 credits 12 lessons · 4 h 47 min
Offered by HSM University · Data Center Engineering
This is the American version of this course. See the Canadian version.
What you'll learn
- Describe the energy, water, carbon, material and community impacts of data centers and the levers that reduce them
- Calculate and interpret PUE, WUE, CUE, REF, ERF and ERE, and measure them correctly by category, boundary and period
- Quantify losses in the power chain and reduce them with right-sizing, modular equipment, eco-modes and higher distribution voltages
- Improve cooling efficiency with warmer setpoints, airflow management, economizers, efficient chillers and liquid cooling
- Reduce IT energy through consolidation, removal of comatose servers, hardware refresh decisions and efficient software
- Estimate cooling water use and blowdown, weigh water against energy and carbon, and plan water stewardship in local context
- Build a greenhouse gas inventory with Scope 1, location- and market-based Scope 2, and Scope 3 embodied emissions
- Evaluate clean energy procurement for additionality and deliverability, and model hourly carbon-free energy matching
- Assess waste heat reuse with heat pumps and district heating, including seasonal matching and contracts
- Estimate and reduce embodied carbon in buildings, equipment and IT, and apply circular end-of-life practices
- Apply reporting regulations, frameworks and certifications in Canada, the United States and Europe, and avoid greenwashing
- Develop a sustainability strategy with a baseline, MAC curve, trade-off analysis, targets, roadmap and reporting plan
Course content
12 lessons · 4 h 47 min total · final exam
- 1 Data centers and sustainability: the big picture 24 min · quiz
- 2 Efficiency metrics: PUE, WUE, CUE and beyond 24 min · quiz
- 3 Power distribution efficiency 24 min · quiz
- 4 Cooling efficiency and free cooling 24 min · quiz
- 5 IT efficiency: utilization, hardware and software 24 min · quiz
- 6 Water use and stewardship 24 min · quiz
- 7 Carbon accounting for data centers 24 min · quiz
- 8 Clean energy procurement and 24/7 matching 24 min · quiz
- 9 Heat reuse and community energy 24 min · quiz
- 10 Embodied carbon and circularity 24 min · quiz
- 11 Reporting, regulation and certification 23 min · quiz
- 12 A sustainability strategy: case study and project 24 min · quiz
- E Final exam 20 questions
Requirements
Recommended background. You can start any course at any time.
Description
Measuring and reducing the energy, water and carbon footprint of data centers: efficiency metrics, power and cooling efficiency, IT efficiency, water, carbon accounting, 24/7 clean energy, heat reuse, embodied carbon and reporting.
Part of the Engineering stream, typically taken in year 4.