지속가능한 데이터센터 시장(2027-2037년) : 정책, 그린 전력, 효율성, 스코프 3 및 예측

The market for sustainable data centers has moved, in the space of two years, from a voluntary corporate-responsibility concern to a hard commercial and regulatory constraint on the single fastest-growing category of electricity demand in the world. The trigger is the AI build-out: soaring rack densities, rising GPU thermal design power, and hyperscale campuses now specified in gigawatts have pushed data-center electricity consumption onto national-grid agendas and into direct conflict with decarbonization targets, water-stress limits, land-use politics and community opposition. The defining bottleneck is no longer capital or chips but power - multi-year grid-interconnection queues have made speed-to-power the industry's scarcest resource, driving a structural shift toward "bring-your-own-power" generation, behind-the-meter microgrids and on-site firm capacity.

This report frames the market around the three emissions scopes that govern data-center sustainability. Scope 2 (purchased electricity) is being addressed through PPAs, hourly-matched clean energy, and a widening portfolio of firm low-carbon generation - small modular reactors, nuclear restarts, enhanced geothermal, fuel cells, and gas paired with carbon capture. Scope 1 and on-site efficiency center on the transition from air to liquid cooling (direct-to-chip and immersion) as densities exceed air's physical limits, alongside 800 VDC power architectures, wide-bandgap (SiC/GaN) power electronics, and performance-per-watt gains in compute, memory and optical interconnect. Scope 3 - which dominates lifecycle emissions - spans carbon dioxide removal, low-carbon construction (green steel, low-carbon cement, mass timber), embodied carbon in IT hardware, and circularity.

Policy is now the market's principal accelerant. The EU's Energy Efficiency Directive reporting scheme, the Data Centre Energy Efficiency Package and its A–F rating scheme, and the Cloud and AI Development Act (which conditions capacity growth on efficiency, water and circularity) sit alongside US federal and state reporting rules, China's green-data-center action plans, Singapore's roadmap, and grid-connection reform in the UK and Ireland. Standards such as PUE, WUE, CUE and EPEAT are hardening from voluntary benchmarks into regulatory metrics.

The result is a rapidly expanding, technology-diverse market spanning power generation, storage, cooling, power electronics, efficient IT and Scope 3 abatement - forecast in detail to 2037 across power consumption, emissions, cooling revenue and 800 VDC adoption, under baseline, stringent-regulation and delayed-regulation scenarios. Sustainability has become inseparable from the economics and permitting of building AI infrastructure at all.

The Global Market for Sustainable Data Centers 2027–2037: Policy, Green Power, Efficiency, Scope 3 and Forecasts is a comprehensive, 10-chapter market study that combines policy analysis, technology assessment, quantitative forecasts to 2037, and 245 company profiles across the full sustainable-data-center value chain.

Contents include:

• Executive summary - headline numbers, policy landscape, highest-impact technologies, and forecast conclusions
• Introduction & context - data-center types, AI build-out, global footprint, metrics and emissions accounting
• Global policy & regulation - EU, US, China, APAC, UK; grid connection; standards and disclosure
• Energy demand, grid stress & business case - IEA scenarios, interconnection queues, water, carbon intensity
• Sustainable power generation - PPAs, BYOP, solar/wind, nuclear/SMRs, geothermal, CCUS, fuel cells, storage/LDES
• Energy efficiency - cooling (air/direct-to-chip/immersion), 800 VDC and SiC/GaN power, efficient compute/memory/optics
• Scope 3 decarbonization - CO₂ removal, green steel/cement, embodied carbon and circularity
• Market forecasts to 2037 - power, emissions, cooling, 800 VDC, policy-scenario sensitivities
• 244 company profiles 1414 Degrees, 3M, Aalo Atomics, AcBel Polytech, Accelsius, ACCURE Battery Intelligence, Airco Process Technology, Algoma Steel, AlphaESS, Ambri, AMD, Amkor Technology, Ampace, Antora Energy, Aperam BioEnergia, ArcelorMittal, Ardent, ASE Group, Asetek, Asia Vital Components (AVC), Asperitas, Atecom Technology, Auras Technology, Ayar Labs, Baker Hughes, Ballard Power Systems, Biomason, Blastr Green Steel, Bloom Energy, Boston Metal, Boyd Corporation, Brenmiller Energy, Bright Renewables, Broadcom, BYD Energy Storage, C-Capture, Caldera, Calibrant Energy, Cambridge Electric Cement, Capsol Technologies, Carbice, CarbiCrete, Carbonaide, CarbonCure, CarbonFree, CATL, CellCube, Cerebras, Ceres Power, Chart Industries, Chemours, China Baowu, Chiyoda, Cisco Systems, Climeworks, Coherent, Coolbrook, Cooler Master, CoolIT Systems, Corintis, Dalian Rongke Power, Deep Fission, Delta Electronics, Dow, Eaton Corporation, EFFECT Photonics, Electra (Electra Steel), ElectraMet, Electrified Thermal Solutions, Element Six, Emirates Steel Arkan, Energy Dome, Energy Vault, EnergyNest, Engineered Fluids, Eoptolink, Eos Energy Enterprises, EPC (Efficient Power Conversion), ESS Tech, EVE Energy, Exowatt, Fabrinet and more.....

Table of Contents

1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

• 1.1 Scope and definitions
• 1.2 Why data center sustainability is now a policy issue (AI build-out, grid stress, water, land)
• 1.3 Data center energy demand and CO₂ emissions: the headline numbers
• 1.4 The biggest contributors to the data center carbon footprint (Scope 1/2/3 split)
• 1.5 The global policy landscape at a glance: from voluntary targets to binding mandates
• 1.6 Regional policy heat-map: EU, US (federal + state), China, Singapore, Japan, UK, Ireland
• 1.7 Grid-connection policy as the new bottleneck
• 1.8 Standards, certification and reporting (PUE, WUE, CUE, EPEAT, EU energy labels)
• 1.9 Which sustainable technologies have the biggest impact
• 1.10 Market forecast, 2025–2037
• 1.11 Key conclusions and outlook

2 INTRODUCTION: THE DATA CENTER MARKET AND SUSTAINABILTY CONTEXT

• 2.1 What is a data center? Edge, colocation, enterprise, hyperscale
• 2.2 The AI-driven build-out: rack density, GPU TDP and power demand
• 2.3 Global data center footprint - leading markets (US, Germany, UK, Ireland, Nordics, China, Singapore, Japan)
• 2.4 Data center sustainability metrics explained (PUE, WUE, CUE, ERF, REF, carbon intensity, SCI)
• 2.5 Emissions accounting: Scope 1, Scope 2 (market- vs location-based), Scope
• 2.6 Hyperscaler and colocator emissions and net-zero targets
• 2.7 Water, land, grid and community impacts driving public scrutiny
• 2.8 Motivations behind sustainability action: regulation, cost, reputation, grid access

3 THE GLOBAL POLICY AND REGULATORY LANDSCAPE FOR SUSTAINABLE DATA CENTERS

• 3.1 Overview: from voluntary pledges to binding regulation
• 3.2 A taxonomy of policy instruments (efficiency mandates, reporting/disclosure, energy labels, grid-connection rules, siting/moratoria, tax incentives, water rules, procurement/certification)
• 3.3 European Union
  • 3.3.1 Energy Efficiency Directive (EED) reporting scheme and the European database/dashboard
  • 3.3.2 Data Center Energy Efficiency Package and the EU rating scheme
  • 3.3.3 Minimum Performance Standards for data centers
  • 3.3.4 Cloud and AI Development Act - capacity tripling conditioned on energy/water efficiency and circularity
  • 3.3.5 EU Taxonomy and the Code of Conduct for Data Center Energy Efficiency
  • 3.3.6 Germany, France, Ireland
  • 3.3.7 Nordics and district-heating integration
• 3.4 United States
  • 3.4.1 Federal legislative activity (data center energy/reporting bills; EIA data collection)
  • 3.4.2 State-level reporting and disclosure legislation (annotated survey)
  • 3.4.3 From moratoria to regulation: the local-permitting pivot
  • 3.4.4 State tax incentives and their sustainability conditions (Arizona, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Virginia, Washington)
  • 3.4.5 Grid interconnection and "bring-your-own-power" responses
• 3.5 China
  • 3.5.1 National "Green Data Center" Action Plan
  • 3.5.2 Special Action Plan for Green & Low-Carbon Development of Data Centers (PUE targets, renewable share)
  • 3.5.3 "East Data, West Compute" and the China cost/efficiency advantage
• 3.6 Asia-Pacific
  • 3.6.1 Singapore - Green Data Center Roadmap / DC-CFA mandate
  • 3.6.2 Japan - emerging data center regulation
  • 3.6.3 Other APAC markets (Malaysia, India, Australia)
• 3.7 United Kingdom
  • 3.7.1 Ofgem grid-connection reform and the connections queue
  • 3.7.2 Critical National Infrastructure designation and planning
• 3.8 Grid-connection policy as a cross-cutting theme
• 3.9 Standards, certification and disclosure frameworks
  • 3.9.1 PUE/WUE/CUE as regulatory metrics
  • 3.9.2 EPEAT and the draft circularity criteria for enterprise data storage
  • 3.9.3 GHG Protocol updates: location-based and hourly matching
  • 3.9.4 ISO / CEN-CENELEC and industry codes of conduct
• 3.10 Policy gap analysis and outlook: where regulation is heading 2026–2030

4 DATA CENTER ENERGY DEMAND, GRID STRESS AND SUSTAINABILITY BUSINESS CASE

• 4.1 Global and regional electricity demand outlook (IEA "Energy and AI" scenarios)
• 4.2 The power gap: interconnection queues and supply constraints
• 4.3 Carbon intensity of grid power by geography
• 4.4 Water use and water-stress exposure
• 4.5 The cost, reputation and grid-access case for going green
• 4.6 "Reality check": fossil fuels still dominate near-term power

5 SUSTAINABLE POWER GENERATION FOR DATA CENTERS

• 5.1 Decarbonizing Scope 2: RECs, PPAs, clean transition tariffs, hourly matching
• 5.2 "Bring your own power": hyperscalers as generators; microgrids and behind-the-meter
  • 5.2.1 Microgrid architectures and controllers
  • 5.2.2 Balancing engines and gensets (transition fuels, HVO, hydrogen-ready)
• 5.3 Solar, wind and hydropower
  • 5.3.1 Utility-scale solar, wind and hydropower: LCOE, intermittency and land footprint
  • 5.3.2 Matching intermittent supply to flexible AI load
  • 5.3.3 Frontier siting concepts: offshore, subsea and orbital data centers
• 5.4 Nuclear: conventional, SMRs and fusion
  • 5.4.1 Why SMRs for data centers; Gen III+ vs Gen IV designs
  • 5.4.2 Hyperscaler–developer partnerships and first deployments
  • 5.4.3 Restart/uprate of existing nuclear plants
  • 5.4.4 Fusion energy: hyperscaler offtake and the honest timeline
• 5.5 Geothermal and enhanced geothermal systems (EGS)
• 5.6 Carbon capture (CCUS) on gas power for data centers
  • 5.6.1 Post-combustion capture on gas turbines: technology and maturity
  • 5.6.2 The energy penalty: parasitic load and delivered megawatts
  • 5.6.3 Economics, siting and bankability of gas-plus-capture
• 5.7 Hydrogen fuel cells (PEMFC / SOFC)
  • 5.7.1 PEMFC and SOFC: technology, efficiency and duty-cycle fit
  • 5.7.2 Fuel supply as the binding constraint
  • 5.7.3 Deployment reality check: constraints on fuel cell scaling
• 5.8 Batteries, BESS, thermal energy storage and long-duration storage (LDES)
  • 5.8.1 UPS and grid-interactive UPS
  • 5.8.2 Li-ion (LFP/NMC) for backup and primary power
  • 5.8.3 Redox flow and alternative chemistries (sodium-ion, zinc, sodium-sulfur, liquid-metal)
  • 5.8.4 Thermal energy storage and LDES for data centers
  • 5.8.5 CO₂ and compressed-gas storage: emerging non-electrochemical LDES
• 5.9 Benchmarking: environmental, technical and economic comparison of power sources

6 ENERGY EFFICIENCY FOR DATA CENTERS

• 6.1 Beyond PUE: thermal, electrical and IT efficiency
• 6.2 Thermal management and cooling
  • 6.2.1 Air vs. direct-to-chip vs. immersion liquid cooling
  • 6.2.2 Thermal interface materials, cold plates, vapor chambers
  • 6.2.3 Immersion fluids and refrigerant GWP
  • 6.2.4 Waste-heat reuse and district heating
  • 6.2.5 Thermoelectric and solid-state cooling
  • 6.2.6 Comparative lifecycle emissions and cost by cooling method
• 6.3 Power efficiency (power supply, 800 VDC, distribution)
  • 6.3.1 PSUs, 80 PLUS and efficiency programs
  • 6.3.2 SiC and GaN power electronics
  • 6.3.3 800 VDC architecture and rack power delivery
  • 6.3.4 High-temperature superconductors (HTS) for power distribution
  • 6.3.5 Power factor correction and harmonic management
• 6.4 IT efficiency (AI chips, memory, storage, interconnect)
  • 6.4.1 AI chip performance-per-watt
  • 6.4.2 HBM/DRAM and SSD/QLC NAND energy efficiency
  • 6.4.3 Co-packaged optics and silicon photonics for interconnect efficiency
  • 6.4.4 Hardware reuse and refresh cycles
• 6.5 Efficiency mandates linkage (EU rating scheme, 80 PLUS, national programs)

7 SCOPE 3 DECARBONIZATION FOR DATA CENTERS

• 7.1 Why Scope 3 dominates data center emissions
• 7.2 Carbon credits and CO₂ removal
  • 7.2.1 Removal vs. avoidance; durable vs. nature-based
  • 7.2.2 DAC, BECCS, biochar and enhanced weathering
  • 7.2.3 Hyperscaler CDR portfolios and pre-purchases
  • 7.2.4 Carbon credit market mechanics: purchasing routes, pricing and quality
  • 7.2.5 From voluntary to compliance: the convergence of carbon removal with regulation
• 7.3 Low-carbon construction
  • 7.3.1 Green concrete and cement decarbonization
  • 7.3.2 Green steel
  • 7.3.3 Mass timber and environmental attribute certificates
  • 7.3.4 Construction cost and the green premium
• 7.4 Embodied carbon in IT hardware (servers, GPU baseboards) and circularity/reuse
  • 7.4.1 Where embodied carbon sits: the componentry-level split of a server
  • 7.4.2 The GPU baseboard and accelerator embodied footprint
  • 7.4.3 Refresh cycles, reuse and secondary markets
• 7.5 Procurement policy and EPEAT circularity criteria linkage

8 MARKET FORECASTS, 2025-2037

• 8.1 Forecast methodology and assumptions
• 8.2 Data center power and electricity consumption forecast
• 8.3 Data center CO₂ emissions forecast (Scope 2 and Scope 3)
• 8.4 GPU TDP trend forecast
• 8.5 Cooling market forecast by method (revenue)
• 8.6 800 VDC / HVDC power forecast
• 8.7 Adjacent green-technology forecasts
• 8.8 Policy-scenario sensitivities (baseline / stringent-regulation / delayed-regulation)

9 COMPANY PROFILES

• 9.1 Data center operators - hyperscalers & AI clouds (9 company profiles)
• 9.2 Colocation providers 135 (9 company profiles)
• 9.3 Sustainable power generation & storage
  • 9.3.1 Nuclear / SMR (14 company profiles)
  • 9.3.2 Geothermal / EGS (2 company profiles)
  • 9.3.3 Fuel cells (7 company profiles)
  • 9.3.4 Solar inverters & balancing power (2 company profiles)
  • 9.3.5 Batteries, UPS & BESS (Li-ion) (16 company profiles)
  • 9.3.6 Flow, sodium, zinc & alternative chemistries (12 company profiles)
  • 9.3.7 Thermal & long-duration energy storage (LDES) (19 company profiles)
  • 9.3.8 Storage enabling technology (BMS / analytics / deployers) (4 company profiles)
  • 9.3.9 Carbon capture on power (gas CCS) (5 company profiles)
• 9.4 Energy efficiency - cooling & thermal management
  • 9.4.1 Cooling systems (direct-to-chip / immersion / rack) (13 company profiles)
  • 9.4.2 Thermal interface materials & components (17 company profiles)
  • 9.4.3 Immersion fluids & refrigerants (4 company profiles)
  • 9.4.4 Airflow, fans & active-cooling components (5 company profiles)
• 9.5 Energy efficiency - power electronics, PSUs & power distribution
  • 9.5.1 Wide-bandgap devices (SiC / GaN) 264 (16 company profiles)
  • 9.5.2 Power supplies & DC power delivery (PSU / 800 VDC) (2 company profiles)
  • 9.5.3 High-temperature superconductors (power distribution) 282 (1 company profiles)
• 9.6 Energy efficiency - IT: compute, memory & optical
  • 9.6.1 AI accelerators (performance-per-watt focus) (10 company profiles)
  • 9.6.2 Memory (HBM / DRAM / NAND) (5 company profiles)
  • 9.6.3 Co-packaged optics / silicon photonics (interconnect efficiency) (23 company profiles)
• 9.7 Semiconductor-manufacturing sustainability (embodied carbon) (3 company profiles)
• 9.8 Scope 3 - carbon removal / CCUS
  • 9.8.1 Direct air capture (DAC) (5 company profiles)
  • 9.8.2 Point-source capture & utilization (4 company profiles)
• 9.9 Scope 3 - low-carbon construction & materials
  • 9.9.1 Green steel (32 company profiles)
  • 9.9.2 Low-carbon cement / concrete (24 company profiles)
• 9.10 Scope 3 - circularity & IT hardware reuse 389 (2 company profiles)

10 APPENDICES

• 10.1 Glossary and acronyms
• 10.2 Methodology and data sources (base year 2025; forecast to 2037)
  • 10.2.1 Research approach
  • 10.2.2 Scope, definitions and system boundary
  • 10.2.3 Base year, forecast horizon and conventions
  • 10.2.4 Construction of the power and electricity forecast
  • 10.2.5 Construction of the emissions forecast
  • 10.2.6 Scenario framework
  • 10.2.7 Adjacent-technology forecasts and attribution
  • 10.2.8 Data sources

11 REFERENCES