Data Centers, Major Consumers of Electrical Energy

Access to the internet involves certain costs for everyone. The global network requires a considerable amount of energy to function, and this has become very noticeable in statistics. The global energy consumption of data centers will contribute to 3.2% of total carbon emissions, accounting for up to 20% of the world's electricity consumption, according to a specialized study. According to the Crosspoint Real Estate analysis, the data center industry is worth $175 billion and is estimated to triple its value in the next five years. Currently, the data center market has surpassed 8,000 operational units globally in 2023. According to the study: "Twenty-three years ago, at the explosion of the dot-com bubble, only 7% of the global population had internet access. Currently, over 5 billion people are connected to the internet, and 100 zettabytes of information are generated annually. Consequently, this exponential growth has given rise to a development directly proportional to the data center industry. A $175 billion market, estimated to triple its value in the next 5 years, the data center industry has reached over 8,000 operational units globally in 2023. This alternative type of activity is attracting more and more investors: the Blackstone investment fund, one of the largest real estate asset owners globally, declared its intention this year to sell a substantial part of its portfolio to secure liquidity for building data centers, allocating $8 billion for the development of hyperscale data centers for several major companies in the Tech industry."

According to the cited source, current projections indicate that by 2025, the energy consumption of data centers will contribute to 3.2% of total carbon emissions, accounting for up to 20% of the world's electricity consumption. Regarding the Romanian data center market, information centralized by Crosspoint Real Estate shows that currently, nationally, there are 30 such centers located in Bucharest, Craiova, Brasov, Cluj-Napoca, and Timisoara. Per capita, the data center capacity in Romania is only 3.2W, well below the Nordic countries' average, which tops the chart at 22.6W, and below the average for Central and Eastern Europe, where the capacity is 4.5W. "Data centers in Romania, however, have the advantage of having one of the lowest Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) coefficients, estimated at 1.37, much below the European average and very close to that recorded by Nordic countries," the researchers appreciate. Founded in 2005, Crosspoint Real Estate provides both real estate trading and consulting services and the financial solutions required for major investors, for all types of properties: offices, retail, industrial, land, hotels, and residential.