2018年4月，音樂(lè)視頻“Despacito”創(chuàng)下互聯(lián)網(wǎng)紀(jì)錄，成為YouTube上首個(gè)點(diǎn)擊率達(dá)到50億的視頻。然而過(guò)程中，“Despacito”也創(chuàng)下了沒(méi)什么人知道的里程碑，巨大流量消耗的能源相當(dāng)于多達(dá)4萬(wàn)戶美國(guó)家庭的用量。

計(jì)算機(jī)服務(wù)器主要功能是存儲(chǔ)網(wǎng)站數(shù)據(jù)并與其他計(jì)算機(jī)和移動(dòng)設(shè)備共享，由此打造了神奇的虛擬世界。但每次搜索、每個(gè)點(diǎn)擊或流媒體視頻每次播放都需要多個(gè)服務(wù)器工作，如果用谷歌搜索“Despacito”，就會(huì)激活全球6到8個(gè)數(shù)據(jù)中心的服務(wù)器，消耗大量能源。

而且是很多能源。

如今，數(shù)據(jù)中心消耗了全球約2%的電力。華為負(fù)責(zé)研究可持續(xù)信息和通信技術(shù)安德斯·安德雷表示，到2030年可能上升到消耗全球電力的8%。

2014年，美國(guó)數(shù)據(jù)中心用電量為700億千瓦時(shí)，相當(dāng)于同年640萬(wàn)美國(guó)家庭的用電量。數(shù)據(jù)中心需要電力為服務(wù)器、存儲(chǔ)設(shè)備、備份和電力冷卻基礎(chǔ)設(shè)施供電；大多數(shù)服務(wù)器需要溫度低于80華氏度才能正常運(yùn)行，在傳統(tǒng)數(shù)據(jù)中心，冷卻耗電量可占總量的40%。

“人們不會(huì)考慮Netflix流媒體在后端造成的影響，”總部位于香港的非營(yíng)利組織中國(guó)水務(wù)危機(jī)主管Debra Tan表示?！拔磥?lái)信息和通信技術(shù)（ICT）部門(mén)可能是最耗電的領(lǐng)域之一?！?/p>

隨著Debra Tan所稱(chēng)的全球向“云社會(huì)”的轉(zhuǎn)變，以及5G網(wǎng)絡(luò)、機(jī)器人、人工智能和加密貨幣等新興技術(shù)興起，數(shù)據(jù)中心的用電量還將繼續(xù)飆升。

數(shù)據(jù)龐大的碳足跡

服務(wù)器一般位于不起眼的數(shù)據(jù)中心，而不是煙囪滾滾的工廠，所以碳足跡很容易被忽略。

但是，連接需求不斷增長(zhǎng)意味著數(shù)據(jù)中心需要越來(lái)越多能源，其中大部分為不可再生能源，且會(huì)導(dǎo)致碳排放。根據(jù)《自然》雜志統(tǒng)計(jì)，數(shù)據(jù)中心在全球碳排放中的份額為0.3%；信息和通信技術(shù)部門(mén)整體占的份額超過(guò)了2%，而且可能繼續(xù)增加。

美國(guó)有300萬(wàn)個(gè)數(shù)據(jù)中心，約每100個(gè)美國(guó)人就有一個(gè)。弗吉尼亞州北部的勞頓縣聚集了大量數(shù)據(jù)中心。亞馬遜、微軟和谷歌等科技巨頭的數(shù)據(jù)中心均在該處，縣政府官員聲稱(chēng)，全球70%的互聯(lián)網(wǎng)流量都通過(guò)當(dāng)?shù)氐臄?shù)據(jù)中心。

綠色和平組織表示，盡管亞馬遜和谷歌都承諾將勞頓縣的數(shù)據(jù)中心轉(zhuǎn)向100%清潔能源，但實(shí)際上只有12%的亞馬遜數(shù)據(jù)中心和4%的谷歌數(shù)據(jù)中心采用了可再生能源。該地區(qū)商業(yè)電價(jià)較低，因此對(duì)耗電大戶數(shù)據(jù)中心很有吸引力。

CWR的Debra Tan表示，谷歌和Facebook等業(yè)務(wù)遍布全球的美國(guó)科技公司必須承諾加大使用清潔能源，百度、阿里巴巴和騰訊等中國(guó)科技公司也一樣，2017年中國(guó)科技巨頭消耗的能源當(dāng)中有67%來(lái)自煤炭。中國(guó)的數(shù)據(jù)中心產(chǎn)業(yè)排名全球第二，市場(chǎng)份額占全球8%。

“積極走向低碳化方面，信息和通信技術(shù)行業(yè)絕對(duì)可以引領(lǐng)世界，因?yàn)槎际俏磥?lái)最具影響力的部門(mén)，”Debra Tan表示?！斑@些行業(yè)有能力，規(guī)模也足夠大?！?

數(shù)據(jù)永不停止

華為的研究者安德斯·安德雷表示，互聯(lián)網(wǎng)“永不停止地創(chuàng)造數(shù)據(jù)”，所以未來(lái)數(shù)據(jù)中心的電力需求可能激增，他認(rèn)為更先進(jìn)的視頻、5G網(wǎng)絡(luò)、人工智能培訓(xùn)、全息照相和加密貨幣挖礦皆為驅(qū)動(dòng)因素。

很多關(guān)注加密貨幣崛起的人一直在擔(dān)心比特幣開(kāi)采導(dǎo)致的能源消耗。分析人士表示，比特幣挖礦消耗了全球約0.3%的電力（一些質(zhì)疑者認(rèn)為，估算數(shù)字有所夸大）。

中國(guó)政府已開(kāi)始嚴(yán)厲打擊挖礦。本月早些時(shí)候，內(nèi)蒙古自治區(qū)當(dāng)局宣布不再支持加密采礦業(yè)，不過(guò)并未發(fā)布官方禁令。

內(nèi)蒙古煤炭資源豐富，電力相當(dāng)廉價(jià)，因此吸引了不少加密貨幣礦工前往地處偏遠(yuǎn)的內(nèi)蒙挖礦。在中國(guó)，數(shù)據(jù)中心73%的電力依賴(lài)煤炭，23%使用可再生能源。中國(guó)的清潔能源產(chǎn)業(yè)仍在發(fā)展中，與煤電能源相比基礎(chǔ)設(shè)施匱乏，煤電能源價(jià)格相對(duì)低廉，中國(guó)的煤炭消費(fèi)量占全球的一半。

2019年綠色和平組織和華北電力大學(xué)聯(lián)合研究顯示，2018年中國(guó)的數(shù)據(jù)中心排放了9900萬(wàn)噸二氧化碳，如果工業(yè)部門(mén)無(wú)法解決能源消耗問(wèn)題，到2023年二氧化碳排放量還將增加三分之二。

綠色和平組織東亞氣候與能源活動(dòng)人士葉瑞琪（音譯）表示，要推動(dòng)行業(yè)轉(zhuǎn)向可再生能源發(fā)展，“必須靠互聯(lián)網(wǎng)數(shù)據(jù)中心公司自身”。

“我們要著手解決與數(shù)據(jù)中心耗能相關(guān)的碳排放和空氣污染物問(wèn)題，”葉指出，中國(guó)已有一些公司開(kāi)始轉(zhuǎn)向可再生能源，“頗有前景?！?/p>

雖說(shuō)消費(fèi)者日常消費(fèi)行為可以做一些改變，比如在Netflix觀看流媒體時(shí)選擇中等畫(huà)質(zhì)而非高清，就可以節(jié)省75%以上的碳和水資源，但企業(yè)和政府應(yīng)該在供應(yīng)鏈綠化和可再生能源基礎(chǔ)設(shè)施開(kāi)發(fā)方面起帶頭作用，Debra Tan表示。

“可以提高效率，……，但需求也會(huì)上升，”Debra Tan說(shuō)。“最好是后端、云、以及所有輸電塔等100%采用可再生能源。如果基礎(chǔ)設(shè)施能實(shí)現(xiàn)充分利用清潔能源，抑制需求的壓力就會(huì)變小?！?/p>

做起來(lái)并不容易，但如果相關(guān)行業(yè)采取行動(dòng)，從煤炭轉(zhuǎn)向可再生能源，電力消費(fèi)確實(shí)可以與碳排放脫鉤，葉表示：“技術(shù)創(chuàng)新與（可持續(xù)）發(fā)展并不一定存在矛盾?！保ㄘ?cái)富中文網(wǎng)）

譯者：Allen

審校：夏林

The music video for “Despacito” set an Internet record in April 2018 when it became the first video to hit five billion views on YouTube. In the process, "Despacito" reached a less celebrated milestone: it burned as much energy as 40,000 U.S. homes use in a year.

Computer servers, which store website data and share it with other computers and mobile devices, create the magic of the virtual world. But every search, click, or streamed video sets several servers to work — a Google search for "Despacito" activates servers in six to eight data centers around the world — consuming very real energy resources.

A lot of them.

Today, data centers consume about 2% of electricity worldwide; that could rise to 8% of the global total by 2030, according to a study by Anders Andrae, who researches sustainable information and communications technology for Huawei Technologies Ltd.

S. data centers consumed 70 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity in 2014, the same amount that 6.4 million American homes used that year. Data centers need electricity to power their servers, storage equipment, backups, and power cooling infrastructure; most servers require temperatures below 80 degrees Fahrenheit to operate, and cooling can comprise up to 40% of electricity usage in conventional data centers.

"People don't think about the backend consequences of Netflix streaming," says Debra Tan, the director of Hong Kong-based nonprofit China Water Risk. "The information and communications technology (ICT) sector is probably one of the most power-hungry sectors going forward."

The global shift toward what Tan calls "cloud-based societies"—and the rise of nascent tech like 5G networks, robotics, artificial intelligence, and cryptocurrencies—means electricity consumption in data centers will keep surging.

Data's massive carbon footprint

Because servers are housed in nondescript data centers rather than factories with billowing smokestacks, the size of their carbon footprint is easily overlooked.

But the constant and increasing demand for connectivity means ever more energy funneled into these data centers, and much of that energy is non-renewable and contributes to carbon emissions. Data centers contribute 0.3% to global carbon emissions, according to Nature; the ICT sector as a whole contributes over 2%, and those numbers could increase.

The U.S. is home to 3 million data centers, or roughly one for every 100 Americans. A large number are clustered in Loudoun County in northern Virginia. Tech giants like Amazon, Microsoft, and Google operate data centers there, and county officials claim that 70% of the world's Internet traffic flows through the area's data centers.

Only 12% of Amazon's Loudoun County data centers and 4% of Google's are powered by renewable energy, despite their pledges to shift to 100% clean energy, according to Greenpeace. The region's low commercial electricity rates make it an attractive site for power-guzzling data centers.

Debra Tan of China Water Risk says that American tech firms with a global presence like Google and Facebook must step up their existing commitments to clean energy, as must Chinese tech companies like Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent, which sourced 67% of their energy from coal in 2017. China's data center industry is the world's second-largest, comprising 8% of the global market.

“The ICT sector can definitely lead the world in aggressive decarbonization because they’re the sector that will add on the most power going forward,” says Tan. “They have the capability [and] they have the scale.”

The data never ends

The Internet's "never-ending creation of data" explains why electricity demand in data centers will likely surge in the future, says Huawei researcher Anders Andrae, who cites more advanced video, 5G networks, A.I. training, holography, and cryptocurrency mining as some of the drivers.

The energy consumption of Bitcoin mining has been a concern for many watching the rise of cryptocurrencies, and analysts have said Bitcoin mining consumes around 0.3% of global electricity (some skeptics argue that such estimates are exaggerated, however).

In China, the government is starting to crack down on the practice. Authorities in China's Inner Mongolia province said earlier this month that they will no longer support the crypto mining industry, though they did not issue an official ban.

Inner Mongolia's cheap electricity, thanks to a wealth of coal, is what first drew crypto miners to the far-flung province. In China, data centers get 73% of their power from coal and 23% from renewable sources. The country's clean energy industry is still developing, so there is a lack of infrastructure compared to coal-powered sources, which are relatively cheap and abundant—China accounts for half of global coal consumption.

China's data centers emitted 99 million tons of carbon dioxide in 2018 and will emit two-thirds more by 2023 unless industry addresses its energy consumption, per a 2019 study by Greenpeace and North China Electric Power University.

Ye Ruiqi, a climate and energy campaigner for Greenpeace East Asia, says that the initiative to move the industry towards renewable energy "must come from internet data center companies themselves."

"We need to start addressing the carbon emissions and air pollutants associated with the source[s] of power that feed into our data centers." Ye says, noting that a handful of Chinese companies have started shifting to renewables and "the results are promising."

While consumers can make some daily changes to their consumption—streaming Netflix on medium quality rather than high-definition could save over 75% of carbon and water used—companies and governments must take the lead in the greening of the supply chain and development of renewable energy infrastructure, says Tan.

"We can get more efficient [...] but our demand is also going to go up," Tan says. "Your best bet is to go 100% renewables for the backend, cloud, all the transmission towers, et cetera. If you can get that infrastructure to green then there's less pressure to curbing demand."

It will be difficult, but if the sector takes action to shift from coal to renewable energy, electricity consumption can decouple from carbon emissions, Ye says: "Technology innovation doesn't have to contradict [sustainable] development."