The Challenge of Environmental Sustainability

The issue of environmental sustainability can sometimes be very divisive. On one side, governments, companies, and public entities have no doubts about the need to accelerate decarbonization, aiming for carbon neutrality by 2050 or sooner. On the other hand, there’s reality: electricity consumption continues to rise, primarily driven by demand for new data centers dedicated to cloud computing and AI. How can we find a balance between the need for innovation and the reduction of emissions? This is a question that Amazon has posed as well, as it is one of the largest companies in the world and, despite making extensive use of transport for deliveries and data centers (via AWS), has committed to achieving net zero by 2040.

How to Achieve It

To find out how, we flew to Palermo, where the multinational recently signed a PPA (Power Purchase Agreement) with Capital Dynamics to power its operations entirely with renewable energy.

Reducing Data Center Consumption: AWS's Strategy Between Infrastructure Efficiency and Renewable Sourcing

As explained by Giulia Gasparini, Country Manager of AWS for Italy, AWS is working on two fronts to achieve carbon neutrality. The first is to focus on renewables for supplying green electricity. In this regard, Amazon is the leading purchaser in the country (and also in Europe) of renewable energy contracts from wind or solar. Only in Italy, the company has developed eight large-scale renewable projects, in addition to about 32 smaller projects and the photovoltaic panels installed on the roofs of warehouses and data centers. These infrastructures are currently sufficient to meet the electricity consumption of about 425,000 Italian families each year.

The most recent of the large-scale projects has just been completed and will start supplying energy to the national grid in the coming days. It is an agrivoltaic field in Gibellina, in the province of Trapani, which we were able to visit. An enormous expanse of photovoltaic panels covers 400 hectares. This is a state-of-the-art infrastructure with bifacial panels that can capture both direct sunlight and light reflected from the ground. These panels are controlled to rotate automatically, allowing them to follow the sun and maximize every hour of light exposure.

Notably, this is an agrivoltaic field, meaning that the land is not completely taken out of cultivation. The panels are installed in rows spaced about 10 meters apart, thus allowing farming on these lands, addressing one of the main criticisms of photovoltaic fields. The energy generated will then be fed into the electricity grid, where it can be consumed. As anyone familiar with electricity networks knows, the generated electricity isn’t just for Amazon: this isn't a park dedicated solely to one company. The energy will be available to anyone, but the advantage for the multinational is that through a PPA, it can ensure that what is generated by the plant will be directed to its operations.

It should be noted that the park is not owned by Amazon, which limited itself to signing a long-term PPA with Capital Dynamics, the fund that invested in the park's construction. Specifically, Capital Dynamics’ role is not as a builder: as explained by Lupo Leonardi, Principal of the Clean Energy team at Capital Dynamics, their role has been to facilitate, seeking the necessary capital for its realization. Essentially, once the agrivoltaic field proposal was approved, Capital Dynamics sought a large investor, Amazon, to secure the purchase of large quantities of renewable energy for a period no shorter than 10 years, ensuring the economic sustainability of the project.

Renewables are Essential but Not Enough: The Need for More Efficient Data Centers

Renewable sourcing is just one front on which Amazon works to reduce emissions. The second is enhancing the efficiency of AWS data centers. Some might argue it’s paradoxical for a hyperscaler of this size to talk about energy savings, given that data centers are notoriously energy-intensive. However, Country Manager Gasparini highlights a detail: “We shouldn't ask if we can afford the growth of AI, but if we can afford not to use AI and cloud to tackle climate change.” Indeed, thanks to cloud and AI, it is possible to enable predictive maintenance systems that identify potential failures before they occur and optimize both the supply chain and energy and water systems, helping to reduce waste. In short, the environmental benefits would outweigh the consumption of these data centers.

In the case of AWS, these data centers are built according to the most stringent sustainability criteria, so much so that, according to the company, they have a Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) better than the industry average: 1.14 compared to 1.25. For comparison, traditional on-premises data centers have a PUE around 1.63, meaning they are four times less efficient than AWS's.

Innovative Designs and Construction

What’s the secret? Firstly, it's about the design of the systems themselves, which, according to the company, ensures computing power is over 12% better than average while maintaining greater energy efficiency. A significant role is played by the Graviton chips for AI, developed internally and capable of consuming 60% less than market alternatives at equivalent performance.

The innovation of AWS data centers extends beyond servers. 38 of the company’s data centers have been built with low CO2-emission cement, reducing carbon emissions by 35% compared to traditional cement. The same applies to steel: green steel is used, produced through hydrogen facilities. Lastly, attention to the circular economy is notable: wherever possible, recycled materials and components are always used.

Cooling Systems and Water Management

Finally, worth examining is the cooling system, which is a mix of air and liquid. A choice that might seem counterintuitive, especially considering that the implemented liquid systems are evaporative, thus consuming water. A paradox? Not quite: these are extremely specific solutions designed to function 90% of the time solely with air cooling. During heat peaks, liquid systems come into play, which Gasparini describes as “sponges” that help water evaporate while reducing water waste and electricity use. Furthermore, in 26 facilities, systems utilizing 100% recycled water (regenerated water that would otherwise be wasted or unusable) are already active.

The result is that despite an increase in computing power, by 2025, the water consumption of these data centers has decreased by 2% compared to the previous year. Regarding water consumption, AWS aims to become “water positive” by 2030: by this date, the company will return more freshwater to communities than it consumes through its direct operations.

In short, the challenge for the future is not to choose between digital innovation and sustainability. It is to build infrastructures capable of supporting the growth of cloud and AI without offloading the costs onto energy, water, and land. The project in Gibellina alone does not solve the problem of data center consumption, but it points towards a direction: more efficiency, more renewables, long-term contracts, and greater industrial responsibility from those fueling the new digital economy.