Carbon-Aware Computing @ Google, and Beyond

The growing climate impact of increased Greenhouse Gas Emissions and CO2 levels in Earth’s atmosphere highlights the value and importance of technologies that reduce such impact. Electricity generation is a significant contributor to global CO2 emissions, and the datacenter industry is expected to reach anywhere from 3 to 13% of global electricity demand by 2030. Datacenters have the potential to facilitate grid decarbonization in a manner different from isolated power loads, and Google has set on a mission to increase and scale carbon awareness via new technology solutions. We present Google’s globally-distributed Carbon-Intelligent Computing System, which harnesses datacenter load flexibility, not only to reduce emissions, but also to contribute to more robust, resilient, and cost-efficient decarbonization of the grid through energy system integration. We share some conclusions derived from operational data and discuss the key technical challenges that drive carbon-aware designs and their future enhancements. By calling out opportunities for “greening” the cloud industry, we hope to inspire academia and industry to pursue diverse and system-specific carbon-aware solutions.