ASHRAE Journal - October 2021 - 46

COLUMN DATA CENTERS
flexibility to increase profitability and reduce their
energy and environmental impact.
Crude oil drilling often yields natural gas as a byproduct,
which is generally not easy to process without
additional infrastructure. Often, it is simply flared off.
This natural gas flaring represents a significant source of
wasted energy and greenhouse gas emissions, which contributes
to the industry's negative environmental impact.8
Crusoe is one of several companies that seek to exploit
this wasted natural gas being flared off to everyone's
collective benefit.9 By locating small-scale mobile
natural gas generating stations near oil drilling sites,
they can capture this wasted energy and use it to mine
cryptocurrency.8
These systems reportedly cut carbon dioxide emissions
by over 50% compared to traditional flaring and make
use of this energy that would otherwise be wasted.8
Often the drilling company is compensated for this harvested
gas as well, encouraging them to support these
greener alternatives for disposing of unwanted gas.8
In North America, the presence of crude extraction
operations in the colder climates of North Dakota and
South Dakota, for example, can potentially alleviate
some of the cooling challenges associated with largescale
computing.10 These economic incentives also
mean that developers can " overbuild " renewable energy
sources without wasting energy or stranding capital
expenditures.
Increased attention on the energy consumption of
cryptocurrency mining is leading to faster development
and adoption of alternative consensus methods that
will lead to reductions in total energy consumption. For
instance, groups such as the Ethereum Foundation, the
organization behind the cryptocurrency Ethereum, are
developing the Proof of Stake consensus method they
estimate will cut per-transaction power consumption by
99.95% when compared with the current Proof of Stake
method popularized by Bitcoin.11
Furthermore, the blockchain technology championed
by the crypto industry presents its own unique opportunities
to address ESG concerns and mandates. The U.N.'s
environmental agency, through a partnership with the
Technical University of Denmark and the Danish Ministry
of Affairs, has established three key areas where blockchain
technology can help accelerate environmental
action. These include " an immutable and public audit
trail of transactions, cheap and borderless transfer of
values, and automated execution of contracts. "
It is posited that blockchain acts as a transparency
and accountability measure that incentivizes emissions
reductions to avoid public embarrassment, shaming
and punishment for bad activities. Additionally, it can
provide a decentralized financial system that fosters new
and greener business models as transactions are made
toward specific projects under established conditions,
all while maintaining the same immutable audit trail.12
Data Center Architecture Evolution
As more industries turn to blockchain technology and
cryptocurrency to keep up with the digital and security
demands of today, the architecture of the data center
itself will need to evolve.
The market for blockchain is projected to reach $25
billion by 2025 as cryptocurrency and blockchain applications
replace traditional finance systems and begin
to gain traction in other industries such as real estate,
intellectual property management and protection, voting
and associated societal transactions.
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ASHRAE Journal - October 2021

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