Powering Data Centres with Renewable Energy in Nigeria: Challenges and Prospects

Abstract

Energy is imperative to human activities, especially in an information age that we are in. Data centres are becoming one of the major energy consumers, about 2.7%, next to the aviation industry. This trend is on the upswing, hence there is an increasing pressure to consider alternative power sources, especially in a developing nation like Nigeria with low energy infrastructural development. Data centres’ growing energy consumption is no doubt a natural consequence of growing data storage requirements, increase in processing, upsurge in data demand, network/ transmission, and the ever increasing global warming, etc. The major data centre infrastructure requiring energy consumption include: Information Technology (IT) equipment load, cooling and ventilation systems, lighting, Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) and power distribution overheads. In a tropical region like Nigeria, greater amount of energy is required for cooling the extensive heat generated by these devices and the environment. As a result, Data centres are often referred to as energy hogs. This paper evaluates inherent challenges as well as the likely prospects of adopting renewable energy to drive Data centres in public and private sectors of Nigeria as a developing nation with power challenges