This post was originally published on Data Center Knowledge
(Bloomberg) — Data centers siphon huge amounts of energy to power artificial intelligence. But their environmental footprint starts to balloon even before the first server switches on due to the immense amount of carbon-intensive concrete needed to build them.
As the US data center buildout surges, with construction beginning on multibillion-dollar facilities from Texas to Wisconsin, tech companies are becoming buyers of low-carbon concrete.
Through 2030, data center expansion is expected to require 2 million metric tons of cement, the binding agent in concrete, according to environmental nonprofit RMI. If these facilities are constructed with traditional concrete, they could generate 1.9 million metric tons of CO2 emissions, according to Chandler Randol, a senior associate with the group’s cement and concrete team. That’s the equivalent of annual emissions from 415,000 gas-powered cars.
Concrete – as well as steel – is a significant portion of the emissions associated with building data centers, said Katherine Vaz Gomes, a decarbonization engineer at Carbon Direct, a climate advisory firm.
“The boom in data centers is providing an opportunity to evaluate, address, and move on the carbon impacts of concrete,” said Vaz Gomes. “As AI infrastructure explodes, data center construction is accelerating and
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