Article published by Visir Iceland on 10th April 2024
Next week in Reykjavik, many key data center industry leaders and experts from around the world will meet to discuss ways to sustainably develop infrastructure in this sector. The Datacloud ESG Summit 2024 will be held in Harpa on 17 and 18 April and is probably the largest event in this sector ever held in Iceland.
This ESG summit of the data center industry is being held for the second time, with the first meeting taking place in Oslo last year, bringing together 350 participants from over 100 companies. For Iceland, it is an honour to be chosen for this conference and at the same time reflects the success of developing technological infrastructure here and the important role that the Arctic plays in data center operations.
Here in Iceland and elsewhere in the Arctic, conditions are such that they are particularly important to the environment when operating data centres, both because of a cooler climate and access to renewable energy sources. These are things that matter globally because of the potential for companies to reduce energy consumption and emissions by storing data and routing calculations to data centers that are themselves run in a sustainable way.
At home, the business creates jobs and creates valuable knowledge in an environment that is increasingly more reliant on data absences and computational computing capabilities, such as artificial intelligence and related developments. Furthermore, these activities earn income directly for the national economy through the purchase of electricity generated in Iceland.
Through infrastructure development in Iceland and access to renewable energy, companies all over the world can benefit the environment and take steps to comply with provisions on sustainability in operations by storing data here.
This will be one of the topics discussed at the conference, which will also present data compiled by the technology company Crusoe Energy in collaboration with the data center industry and demonstrate the environmental benefits of data center operations in the Arctic. While the environmental benefits are obvious, they also need to be able to be demonstrated and proven.
The organisers of the conference are aware of Iceland’s uniqueness and point out that although not all data centers can be built in a cool climate, there is a specification in Iceland of various ways that are exemplary for other companies in this sector. In Iceland, environmental awareness is general and the emphasis on sustainability is such that it can inspire others in the development of digital infrastructure and data centres around the world.
By hosting the conference here, where paths are clear to all major cities on both sides of the Atlantic, participation is expected to be good and consensus can be strengthened in this sector on the importance of sustainability in the operation of data centres and in the development of infrastructure related to them. We look forward to putting our weight on that scale.