Data centres designed for artificial intelligence (AI) workloads are being constructed at a furious pace – and are placing huge demands on already stretched electricity grids. In fact, the speed of this expansion has created a situation where power availability in some locations has become a significant bottleneck and governments have implemented rules aimed at easing pressure on the national electricity grid.

However, grid capacity and connection must be central to national growth strategies. If they aren’t, AI’s potential will be capped not by technology but by the power we fail to deliver. With the clock is ticking, in this month’s Question Time we’ve asked a specially selected panel of industry experts to offer their views on what needs to be done to address the issue of soaring data centre demand and available energy supply.

Sustainability remains an important industry discussion point and we have three articles on the subject. Jon Healy of Salute examines how the data centre sector is now looking at sustainability data as more than a reporting measure by using it to make operational decisions. Jon’s followed by Rob Kelly of Sudlows, who explains why network infrastructure is an integral part of an organisation’s sustainability story, while Jonas Güresir of R&M look at the steps, regulations and challenges associated with integrating circularity into the value chain.

As digital transformation continues there is increasing need for compute power at the edge. Eaton’s Juan Colina explains why modular data centres are the key to ensuring business agility in the age of AI, while Stuart Crump of LiquidStack looks at how liquid cooling will shape-up as data centre capacity moves to the edge.

I recently had the pleasure of catching up with industry pioneer Simon Taylor. Simon’s now working hard to revolutionise the way precious metals are redistributed to the circular economy and he thinks the data centre sector needs to do much more on this issue. You can read my interview with him in this edition of Inside_Networks.

Rob Shepherd 
Editor