Market Trends of On-Site Photovoltaic Solar Power For Data Centers Industry
Decrease in Solar Power Installation Cost is Likely to Drive the Market
- Data centers are defined as a part of a building, a building itself, or a cluster of buildings dedicated to housing computer systems, storage systems, telecommunication systems, and all other associated components. An uninterrupted power supply with backup power is the utmost importance in data centers for data capturing.
- A typical data center consumes power between a few kilowatts to several tens of megawatts. High dependency on the power supply is one of the high operating costs of the data center.
- Several data centers are opting for onsite renewable power sources like solar photovoltaic to reduce operating costs and have a less environmental impact. With decrease in Global Weighted Average Solar PV Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) from USD 0.129/kW in 2015 to nearly USD 0.049/kW in 2022 several entities have started adopting it.
- Moreover, Microsoft is planning to run 100% of its data center by renewable energy by the end of 2025. Thus, with a decrease in installation cost, onsite solar photovoltaic facilities are expected to grow over the years.
- Hence, deceresing solar power installation costs are expected to aid the growth of the on-site photovoltaic solar power for data centers market during the forecast period.
North America to Dominate the Market
- North America is one of the largest software and information technology markets globally, and according to Cloudscene, as of 2022, the United States was the largest data centre market in the world, housing nearly 5375 data centres. Additionally, Canada (335) also held signficant shares in the global datacentre market.
- Emerson data center in Missouri is one of the key data centers in the United States that is using solar photovoltaic technology on its campus to power its data center. The center has a 100-kilowatt solar panel facility, that was installed at the cost of around USD 50 million. Aiso.net in California, i/o Data Centers in Arizona are few other data centers that are facilitated with onsite photovoltaic solar power facilities.
- The amount of renewable power booked by data center operators increased by 50 percent in a year, and the sector now consumes two-thirds of the renewable power available to corporates in the United States.
- In March 2023, Meta revealed that its renewable energy deployments are growing by 30% each year. Meta has already deployed 3.56 GW of solar capacity, and has over 9 GW in its long-term development pipeline. Meta stands as the largest commercial and industrial purchaser of solar power in the United States.
- Hence, due to rising focus on increasing project and business sustainability by using renewable energy to power the energy needs of datacentres, the market is expected to witness a positive growth in North America.