Expanding Data Centers in India: Aiming for Greater Efficiency, Sustainability, and Global Leadership
The Indian government is actively promoting sustainability in the rapidly expanding data center sector through a series of policy initiatives and regulatory measures. These efforts are aimed at fostering renewable energy adoption, improving energy efficiency, and encouraging the use of clean technologies.
Renewable Energy Adoption
Data center operators in India are increasingly turning to renewable energy sources such as solar and wind to power their facilities. States like Rajasthan and Gujarat are leading the way in renewable energy use for data centers. The government's broader push for renewable energy capacity, which increased by 250% from 2014 to 2021, supports this transition. Policies promoting solar cities, solar parks, and the Green Energy Corridor are expanding green power infrastructure nationally [1][2][4].
Energy Efficiency and Sustainable Infrastructure
Indian data centers are adopting innovative cooling technologies, such as liquid cooling and natural resource-based cooling, to enhance energy efficiency. There is also a move towards building high-density, sustainable data centers using low-carbon materials such as concrete and steel, and reusing brownfield sites to reduce embodied carbon [1][3].
Policy Frameworks and Incentives
The government is working on a national data center policy that offers streamlined, single-window permissions and incentives to accelerate data center development. This also includes creating four Data Center Economic Zones (DCEZs) providing focused infrastructure and regulatory support [5]. In parallel, the Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme encourages manufacturing and adoption of clean technologies, including those relevant to data centers [2].
Land and Power Regulations
To support greenfield projects, there are ongoing discussions about developing data center "cities" with assured and dedicated power supply, including renewable electricity and at market-friendly rates [5].
Future Directions
To ensure the industry's sustainable evolution, developing certification frameworks tailored to local needs is crucial. The Indian government should also consider investing in emerging clean technologies such as green hydrogen and energy storage for data centers.
One of India's largest telecom-backed data center operators has already committed to achieving net-zero emissions by 2031. Additionally, edge data centres, smaller, modular hubs that reduce latency, are being set up in Tier-2 cities like Bhubaneswar, Patna, Jaipur, and Coimbatore.
By integrating sustainability certification requirements into planning and development guidelines, offering tax incentives and preferential financing for certified sustainable data centers, and implementing transparent monitoring and reporting mechanisms, the Indian government is driving accountability, investor confidence, and fostering continuous improvement in the data center sector.
[1] Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE). (2022). National Datacenter Policy. Retrieved from https://mnre.gov.in/sites/default/files/National%20Datacenter%20Policy%202022.pdf [2] Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY). (2020). Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme for Large Scale Electronics Manufacturing. Retrieved from https://pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=1668155 [3] NITI Aayog. (2021). India Energy Storage Mission. Retrieved from https://niti.gov.in/writereaddata/files/India_Energy_Storage_Mission_Brochure_Final.pdf [4] Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE). (2021). Green Energy Corridor. Retrieved from https://mnre.gov.in/content/green-energy-corridor [5] Data Centre and Cloud Infrastructure Industry Association of India (DCI). (2021). National Data Centre Policy - A Game Changer for India. Retrieved from https://dciindia.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/DCI-India-National-Data-Centre-Policy-A-Game-Changer-for-India.pdf
- To align with global carbon neutrality goals, one of India's largest telecom-backed data center operators has pledged to achieve net-zero emissions by 2031.
- As part of its strategy for promoting renewable energy adoption, the Indian government is considering investing in emerging clean technologies like green hydrogen and energy storage for data centers.
- In an attempt to foster the use of green finance, the Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme is being used to encourage the manufacturing and adoption of clean technologies, including those relevant to data centers.
- The data center "cities" being proposed under ongoing discussions aim to offer assured and dedicated power supply, including renewable electricity, at market-friendly rates.
- A key focus in the development of sustainable data centers in India is the use of cutting-edge technology such as data-and-cloud-computing and clean technologies like natural resource-based cooling systems.
