There’s a Surge in Data Center Demand in the Middle East. Can Growth and Sustainability be Balanced?

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As the Middle East grows its digital economy, it heavily invests in data centers. With businesses and consumers generating more data than ever before, from working online to streaming and using generative AI like ChatGPT, countries in the region are building the infrastructure needed to keep up with increasing demand.

But this growth poses a problem. Data centers are among the biggest emitters of CO2 in the world. Yet, building data centers in the region shows no signs of slowing down. According to market researcher Arizton, there are 24 operational data centers in Saudi Arabia with a capacity of 123 MW, and 37 more facilities are on the way. Meanwhile, according to research firm DC Byte, the UAE has 52 data centers with a capacity of 235 MW.

However, with sustainability emerging as a key concern for countries in the region, some data centers are committed to reducing their environmental footprint. 

Becoming Energy Efficiency 

Equinix is pledging to become 100% climate neutral by 2030. It aims to do this by optimizing its energy efficiency.

One way it does this is by reducing its power consumption, a metric also known as Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE). The lower the PUE, the more efficient a data center’s energy usage is. A sustainably conscious data center usually tries to get its PUE close to 1. “We work to optimize our energy consumption across our data centers to have a reduced PUE,” says Kamel Tawil, Manager Director of Equinix, MENA. “So globally, the PUE is around 1.3 to 1.4. In the Middle East, we are very much near those levels. Now we are at about 1.4 to 1.5, which is very similar to countries where the climate is not as harsh.”

In the Middle East, temperatures can easily reach 50 Celsius during summer, making cooling paramount for data centers. Without it, the facilities risk overheating, which can sometimes result in outages, like what happened with Google and Oracle data centers when they went offline in London in the summer of 2022 as heat topped 40 Celsius.

This, coupled with increased AI workload, makes overheating a major concern for regional data centers. Some data centers like Equinix are therefore adopting new technologies and methods to become more energy efficient. One such method is liquid cooling, where water is used to lower the temperature of server components. This approach is generally seen as more effective than air cooling.

“We use a lot of chilled water for cooling, and we recycle the chilled water,” says Tawil. “Because of the advancement of AI, the amount of energy is increasing. So, a traditional server would take about five to eight kilowatts per rack, but now, with AI, it might take about 30 kilowatts per rack, which requires different cooling. It cannot just be done using air cooling.”

According to Data Center Knowledge, traditional data centers are designed with 5-10KW power per rack, while AI data centers require 60 or more KW per rack. 

Using Renewable Energy

Energy sources may be cheap and accessible in the region, but as sustainability becomes a business priority, some companies use renewable energy to operate their data centers.

Moro Hub, a subsidiary of Digital DEWA, the digital arm of Dubai Electricity and Water Authority, runs on 100% renewable energy. The data center is located in the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park, one of the largest solar farms in the world. As stated on its website, with a planned production capacity of 5,000 MW by 2030, it aims to save over 6.5 million tons of carbon emissions annually.

“Projects such as the Dubai Electricity and Water Association (DEWA) innovation hub, a 1.2GW solar farm, will support this [a ‘green’ infrastructure approach]. DEWA is capitalizing on the long sunlight hours of the region,” says Stephen Beard, Co-Head of Global Data Centers at Knight Frank, in Data Centres, The MENA Report. 

Moro Hub is not the only facility looking into clean energy solutions. Khazna, an Emirati data center, developed a solar photovoltaic plant with Emerge, a joint venture between Masdar and energy firm EDF, to provide renewable power for its data center in Masdar City. 

Meanwhile, Equinix uses carbon subsidies for its data centers in the Middle East. A carbon subsidy is the effort to price carbon, reflecting the environmental costs of emissions. 

“We buy renewable energy from the providers like the solar park, but this doesn’t directly feed into the data center. It feeds into the climate control within the country,” says Tawil. “Let’s say we consume three megawatts of power, go to the authorities, and buy subsidies for three megawatts coming out of green energy, which mostly comes from the solar park.”

Balancing Act

As demand for digitization and IT infrastructure surges, data centers will need to balance growth and sustainability. While some facilities are taking initiatives to become more energy-efficient, the pace of sustainability ultimately depends on a country’s commitment to reducing its carbon footprint.

For example, the UAE has a net-zero 2050 strategy, a national drive to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. Saudi Arabia has also pledged to reach net zero by 2060. However, many countries in the region still do not have a target for reducing emissions, which could delay the progress of sustainability in data centers.

“Some prioritize sustainability, like the UAE and other countries in the region, while for others, it’s much lower on the priority ladder,” says Sherif Lotfy, business management consultant and an IT veteran. “It depends on what the national priorities are. In Iraq, where I work, there is an electricity shortage, so it doesn’t matter how it comes.”

Nevertheless, as some data centers transition towards becoming more energy-efficient and sustainable, they are paving the way for others to follow suit. While this transition will not happen overnight, it is bound to take place sooner rather than later as sustainability becomes increasingly important for both customers and investors in the years to come.