The rapid growth of artificial intelligence is driving up demand for data centers to keep pace with the expanding technology sector. This is prompting Europe to explore spatial options for digital storage to reduce energy demand on Earth. The 16-month study Advanced Space Cloud for European Net zero emission and Data sovereignty (ASCEND), which investigated the feasibility of launching data centers in space, has come to a very encouraging conclusion, according to Damien Dumestier, the project leader.
The €2 million ASCEND study, which was coordinated by Thales Alenia Space on behalf of the European Commission, confirms that data centers in space are technically, economically and environmentally feasible. The idea is to divert part of the energy needs of data centers and send them into space to benefit from infinite energy, solar energy, Dumestier told CNBC.
For Christophe Valorge, Chief Technical Officer of Thales, “the results of the ASCEND study confirm that the deployment of data centers in space could transform the European digital landscape by offering a greener and more sovereign solution for hosting and processing data.”
AI data centers require about three times as much energy as a traditional data center, which is not only a problem on the energy side, but also on the consumption side, Dumestier said. Merima Dzanic, Head of Strategy and Operations at the Danish Data Center Industry Association, noted that the approach proposed for the European Union is "completely different from the way we build, design and operate data centers."
"We are very proud to contribute to an initiative that supports the European goals of carbon neutrality and strengthens Europe’s technological sovereignty," Valorge emphasized.
As part of the technological sovereignty and innovation proposed by Brussels, the commissioning of these data centers would be environmentally friendly and would help Europe achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.
The study found that a significant reduction in CO2 emissions would require the development of a new type of launcher that emits ten times less. ArianeGroup, one of the 12 companies involved in the study, is working to accelerate the development of such reusable and environmentally friendly launchers.
The goal is to complete the first environmentally friendly launcher by 2035 and then allow 15 years for deployment to reach the enormous capacity needed to make the project feasible, Dumestier said.
Considerations
Data centers are essential to keep pace with digitalization, but they also require significant amounts of electricity and water to run and cool their servers. According to the International Energy Agency, the total global electricity consumption of data centers could exceed 1,000 terawatt hours by 2026, roughly equivalent to the electricity consumption of Japan.
It is estimated that data centers will account for more than 3% of Europe’s electricity demand by 2030, posing significant energy consumption challenges in the fight against climate change.
Michael Winterson, executive director of the European Data Center Association, acknowledges that a data center in space would benefit from higher solar energy efficiency without disrupting weather patterns. However, the center would require significant amounts of rocket fuel to stay in orbit.
Dzanic warns that "the somewhat marginal idea of space-based data centers does not fully solve the problem of sustainable energy use. It is just one piece of the puzzle."
Winterson estimates that even a small 1-megawatt center in low Earth orbit would require about 280,000 kilograms of rocket fuel per year by 2030 at a cost of about $140 million — a calculation based on a significant reduction in launch costs that has yet to materialize. "There will be specialized services that adapt to this idea, but it will by no means be a substitute for the market," he said.
The facilities would orbit at an altitude of about 1,400 kilometers (869.9 miles)— - about three times higher than the International Space Station. Dumestier explained that ASCEND plans to build 13 building blocks for space data centers with a total capacity of 10 megawatts in 2036 as a starting point for commercializing cloud services.
Each building block — with an area of 6,300 square meters — includes the capacity for a dedicated data center service and will be launched in a spaceship, he said. To make a significant impact on the digital sector's energy consumption, Dumestier said 1,300 building blocks will be deployed to reach 1 gigawatt by 2050.
In search of leadership
ASCEND is not the only study investigating the potential of orbital data centers. Microsoft, which has already tested an underwater data center 36 meters below the ocean floor, is working with companies like Loft Orbital to explore the challenges of AI and data processing in space.
ASCEND is one of the measures the EU is taking to gain a competitive edge in the AI ecosystem, where the bloc lags behind the US and China. "The EU is just starting to wake up and smell the coffee and fund these projects," said Dzanic.