Data centers are carbon-intensive enterprises due to their massive energy consumption, and it is estimated that data center industry will account for 8\% of global carbon emissions by 2030. However, both technological and policy instruments for reducing or even neutralizing data center carbon emissions have not been thoroughly investigated. To bridge this gap, this survey paper proposes a roadmap towards carbon-neutral data centers that takes into account both policy instruments and technological methodologies. We begin by presenting the carbon footprint of data centers, as well as some insights into the major sources of carbon emissions. Following that, carbon neutrality plans for major global cloud providers are discussed to summarize current industrial efforts in this direction. In what follows, we introduce the carbon market as a policy instrument to explain how to offset data center carbon emissions in a cost-efficient manner. On the technological front, we propose achieving carbon-neutral data centers by increasing renewable energy penetration, improving energy efficiency, and boosting energy circulation simultaneously. A comprehensive review of existing technologies on these three topics is elaborated subsequently. Based on this, a multi-pronged approach towards carbon neutrality is envisioned and a digital twin-powered industrial artificial intelligence (AI) framework is proposed to make this solution a reality. Furthermore, three key scientific challenges for putting such a framework in place are discussed. Finally, several applications for this framework are presented to demonstrate its enormous potential.
翻译:由于能源消耗量巨大,数据中心是碳密集型企业,估计数据中心工业将在2030年之前占全球碳排放量的8 ⁇ 。然而,尚未对减少甚至中和数据中心碳排放的技术和政策工具进行彻底调查。为缩小这一差距,本调查文件提出了实现碳中性数据中心的路线图,其中既考虑到政策工具和技术方法,又考虑到政策工具和技术方法。我们首先介绍数据中心的碳足迹,并对碳排放的主要来源进行一些了解。在此之后,将讨论主要全球云源的碳中性计划,总结目前朝这个方向的工业努力。接下来,我们将碳市场作为一种政策工具,解释如何以具有成本效益的方式抵消数据中心碳排放量。在技术方面,我们建议通过增加可再生能源渗透、提高能源效率和促进能源流通同时实现碳中性数据中心。我们随后将阐述关于这三个主题的现有技术的全面审查。在此基础上,设想了实现碳中性多管齐下的办法,并提议了一个数字双动力工业人工智能框架,以便让这一解决方案成为现实。最后,我们提出了三个关键的科学框架。