Report: Global data center energy use will rise nearly 20% next year By Chris Nerney

Data centers around the globe are likely to consume 19% more energy next year than in 2011, according to a report from DatacenterDynamics.

The largest increases in energy use should come in markets where facility growth is expected to be robust, the report said. This includes major markets in the U.S. and Europe.

"In these markets a high adoption of efficiency strategies, IT architecture and per-rack consumption that are already the highest in the world indicate a market situation where increased IT capacity can be achieved with minimum of increase in the energy requirement," DatacenterDynamics reports.

Data center operators cite energy costs and availability as top concerns, with more than 40% of survey participants saying that rising energy costs will have a major impact on their data center operations.

These increasing costs likely will force data center pros to strive to make their power and cooling systems more efficient. Power and cooling units often are poorly designed and energy-wasteful, leading to hidden and avoidable expenses.

DatacenterDynamics is a content provider and consultant for data center professionals. Its 2011 Data Center Industry Census collected information from industry owners, operators, suppliers and vendors.

Those surveyed included 3,800 data center owners and operators and 1,600 suppliers/vendors spread throughout 70 countries.

The countries and regions expected to see the most growth in data center power consumption are:

1. Turkey - 85%

2. Colombia - 50%

3. Brazil - 48%

4. China - 46%

5. Argentina - 41%

However, in terms of total projected increase in megawatts, the top countries/regions are China and Germany (500 MW each), central United States (400 MW), eastern U.S. (320 MW), France (300 MW) and Brazil (280 MW).