Reykjavík 2022

Data Center Changemakers Reykjavík 

Live talk shows from the expofloor at the 1st Datacenter Forum Reykjavík, with the people who will change the face of the data center industry.

The Big Debate: Data & Energy

• ✅ Trends, innovations in energy (-storage) and the impact of current events on the energy debate. How will volatile international energy markets impact the data center industry in the Nordics?
• ✅ Datacenter operators & energy suppliers join forces in the development of green energy projects. Is this the beginning of a beautiful friendship?

✅ Heat recovery: we want it, we know how to do it, so what is holding us back? A look at the succes stories & challenges. What are the opportunities & challenges in re-using excess heat from data centers?

The Business Case: A Circular Data Center Economy

✅ Life Cycle Assessment. By including the entirety of data centre’s life cycle, it is possible to keep track of where the main impacts stem from in the data center value chain. This will impact future data center design, build & operations in a way that everybody in the industry needs to understand.

✅ Embodied carbon. Energy usage isn't the only way that data centers can tackle their carbon footprint. Quite possibly it's not even the most important one. We take a close look at everything you need to about embodied carbon.

✅ Scope 3. How will (future) regulations and the EU circular economy action plan change the future design, build & operate data centers?  

Data Center People: attracting talent & exploring the skills shortage

✅ Great career paths, an innovative industry, above average salaries, a booming market. Yet the influx of new talent in the data center industry is low. What is going on?

The Data Center Supply Chain: lots of moving parts

✅ The Suez Canal obstruction, seismic geopolitical shifts caused by the rise of China and the war in Ukraine,, a pandemic that is still raging across the world & the ticking clock that is climate change. These are just some of the most visible reasons why we need to rethink data center supply chain 

The Big Debate: Building a support base for sustainable data center growth in Denmark

✅ The Netherlands is one of the top data center markets in Europe, but lack of a central strategy put local municipalities in charge of decisions that could seriously impact the entire country. This led to messy procedures, lawsuits, resulting in a series of critical newspaper articles. 

The avalanche of bad news more or less forced the Dutch government to impose a nine-month moratorium on the building of new (internatational) hyperscale data centres, while new planning regulations are worked out. We see this in multiple countries over Europe and with this end-of-day panel - live from Copenhagen - we will ask how Denmark can avoid the Dutch dilemma. Because if it shows one thing it's that a scenario for sustainable data center growth can only succeed if it has the support of Danish society, backed by the active involvement of the government.  

[more to follow]