Per a Data Center Knowledge article, federal oversight on energy consumption and renewable energy usage for U.S. data centers is most likely not going to be a priority federally according to Tony Harvey, senior director analyst for Gartner. This is particularly the case with the Trump administration touting traditional energy sources over renewable sources.
Harvey further notes, “Although tech giants like Amazon, Google, and Microsoft are exploring alternative energy sources such as hydrogen and nuclear, data centers still require a reliable power supply that renewables alone cannot yet consistently provide.”
The technological limitations, especially the lack of advanced battery storage, makes it that fully renewable data centers are not quite likely yet.
Though Harvey notes that the federal government will not be very involved, he suspects that large corporations might support consistent, global standards, this is when particularly looking at stricter European regulations.
“US companies would prefer a unified regulatory framework to avoid navigating a complex patchwork of rules across different regions,” he said.
Though on the flip side, Europe’s renewable power regulations could lead some companies to focus on expanding more in the U.S., favoring the economical benefits of subsidies and fewer regulations.
“Factors like data sovereignty and latency concerns will ensure continued investment in European data centers, even with the regulatory imbalance,” Harvey stated.
He went on stating that discussions around data center regulations at state and local levels will probably be the main regulatory drivers in the near future. These discussions have mostly been focusing on the power usage and environmental impact of data centers.
According to John A, Hodges, a lawyer for the Washington, DC-based HWG, although there’s uncertainty on regulating data center power consumption on a federal level, it “is certainly very heavily on the minds” of both state and federal regulators.
“Even if the federal government decides to do nothing further,” he adds, “the states are certainly going to be looking at it, and that seems to be where most of the action is taking place.”
Hodges indicated that state-level initiatives would most likely push regulatory efforts in the near future, primarily in regards to power supply concerns and energy usage transparency.
