The thirst for data has grown steadily in recent years and is getting bigger and bigger.
Half a billion tweets are posted every day, 300 billion emails are sent and 720,000 hours of video material is uploaded to YouTube.
And more and more data is being produced.
Scientists like the British physicist Melvin Vopson have already calculated: If mankind continues to increase data production as it has done recently, one day all the energy consumed on earth will be needed just to process data.
The place where all this is stored is as elusive as computing is visible: the cloud, which is physically found in data centers.
The data explosion is causing the number of such centers to increase exorbitantly – and with it the power consumption.
In 2020, data centers in Germany consumed more electricity than the city of Berlin.
In Frankfurt, the data center capital, they account for a quarter of the total power consumption.
Frankfurt's pioneering role in data centers
Against this background, the discussion about how data centers can be operated more efficiently and sustainably must definitely be conducted - but then with everyone involved.
A regulation that goes beyond the heads of the operators is not expedient, as it could primarily ensure that data centers look for new locations.
That may be the easiest way for one or the other, for whom the often gigantic halls are a thorn in their side.
However, it would be a capitulation to the undoubtedly complex and arduous process of making data centers more efficient as an indispensable element of digitization, which is also in their own interest for cost reasons.
From a regional point of view, the goal should be to continue to give this industry a perspective in the Rhine-Main area.
Because Frankfurt's pioneering role in data centers is becoming increasingly important as a location factor.