On locating sustainable Data Centers in Portugal: Problem structuring and GIS-based analysis

Abstract

Data Centers (DCs) are high energy intensive facilities due to the large power requirements of the computing equipment and the infrastructure needed to support it, in particular cooling systems. Nowadays, the capacity and consequently the energy demand of DCs is growing rapidly to meet the digitalization of the society. In order to meet sustainability concerns, the construction of a new DC must address the economic and environmental impacts of the different design options and one of the most crucial choices to be made concerns the location of the DC. This paper presents a brief overview of the current landscape of Portuguese DCs, based on the results of a survey. It also proposes a methodology to identify the best areas to locate a new DC in Portugal, using a new structure for evaluation criteria, based on inputs from industry experts. The relevant data was collected in a Geographical Information System (GIS) and successive filters were applied to progressively reduce the number of candidate sites. Finally, an analysis to the benefits of having DCs on those sites in comparison with their current locations was made, and the results show that the chosen sites to locate these facilities were not the best solution to achieve a more sustainable DC.

Key Determinant Derivations for Information Technology Disaster Recovery Site Selection by the Multi-Criterion Decision Making Method

“…For example, Wang et al [48] summarized environment and economic factors, including price and distance and constructed a hierarchical decision-making framework for solving the solid waste landfill site-selection problem. Covas et al [14] argued that considerations for evaluating a new data center location site from an energy efficiency perspective, mainly because data centers need a large amount of power for computing equipment and their infrastructure. Other researchers put more emphasis on the site selection procedure and treat site selection as the first step of a comprehensive decision making process [46,49].…”

“…A few researchers explored criteria on the selection of data centers [9,13,14]. However, based on the authors' very limited knowledge, very few or no research explored IT disaster recovery site selection in detail.…”

Location Science

“…These decisions concern the identification and selection of marginal lands, i.e. lots and areas economically unprofitable due to, for instance, their poor agricultural or residential potential, where biomass production (Niblick et al 2013), least-cost bioenergy locations (Panichelli and Gnansounou 2008;Kaundinya et al 2013;Höhn et al 2014), data center infrastructures (Trigueiros Covas et al 2013), corridors for electric lines, solar and wind farms (Ramırez-Rosado et al 2008;Janke 2010;Van Hoesen and Letendre 2010;Molina-Ruiz et al 2011) or renewable hybrid systems (Aydin et al 2013) can be located.…”

Método multicritério de tomada de decisão: aplicação ao caso da localização espacial de uma Unidade de Pronto Atendimento – UPA 24 h

“…O número de variáveis e critérios que são considerados no processo decisório para a localização tem aumentado nas últimas décadas, como regulamentação governamental, transporte, custos de mão de obra (Yang & Lee, 1997), proximidade com varejistas, fatores ambientais, qualidade de vida (Chuang, 2001), critérios econômicos como proximidade a rede de telecomunicações, proximidade com fornecimento de energia elétrica (Covas et al, 2013).…”