For all the planning that goes into building a data center, a surprising number of the world's facilities go up in adverse climates. And by that we mean hot climates, which put added pressure on the elaborate cooling systems that keep those stacks of expensive hardware from overheating. An analysis by Rest of World, an online publication that focuses on tech stories occurring outside the West, determined that many data centers "are located in regions that are too hot for optimal operations."

Using the range recommended by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE), Rest of World set out to determine which of the world's data centers fall outside 18 to 27 degrees Celsius (64.4 to 80.6 degrees Fahrenheit). The team discovered that many data centers exist in too-hot climates—and that 21 nations keep all of their data centers in climates considered too hot for operations. It makes sense that nations in hot climates have no choice but to build in sub-optimal conditions, but, as Tom's Hardware notes, demand for data centers in toasty climates, like Singapore, is only rising.

Rest of World puts the world’s total data center count at just under 9,000 and expects three times as many data centers by the time we reach 2030. The resources required to cool them will be massive.

The search for places to put these ever-larger data centers has led to some wild concepts, including putting data centers in space. The idea is that, aside from not occupying valuable land, a space-based data center would use solar power. Although the challenges in putting hardware into space are numerous, we like that it moves the need for cooling, power, and land off the planet.

China has been developing undersea data centers to leverage the ocean's cooling capabilities. The project also uses wind power, further reducing the resources gobbled up by the data center's hardware.

It's worth noting that the ever-growing number of AI data centers is costly for people living nearby, not just for the companies building them. As we noted recently, massive AI data centers sometimes lead to significantly increased power bills for residents. In other cases, power utilities are struggling to keep up with the demands from data centers in their service areas. In fact, there are data center shells in Santa Clara, CA, that could wait for years before seeing power from the local utility. And, of course, these massive facilities eat up large swaths of land. But with AI buoying the economy (for now), the number of data centers under construction will continue to explode.

By: DocMemory
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