Using digital devices looks and feels green, because there’s no obvious physical waste. But the global networks of data exchange and storage involved have a vast environmental footprint.

International Energy Association evidence suggests that data centres consume more than 1.5% of the world’s entire electricity production, or 415 terawatt hours a year. Data centre demand for energy is also growing at around 12% annually. Also, even small data centres require 26 million litres of water a year for cooling.

Which is why Dr Rostislav Mikhaylovskiy’s work on green data storage is so significant, and has just been backed by £3 million funding from the UK’s Royal Academy of Engineering. Rostislav is developing a new form of memory storage based on ultra-fast bursts of terahertz radiation and magnets.

“With this approach, light pulses which are a thousand times faster than today’s 5G technology are used to flip the direction of small magnets that store bits of data,” he explained. “Because these pulses match the magnets’ energy, they can switch them without creating heat — meaning which much faster, cooler and more energy-efficient data storage.”

The Green Future Fellowship award will fund the next stage of the technology’s development, building and testing prototypes and moving towards commercialisation and the potential to radically change the footprint of data centres worldwide.

This article was initially featured in issue four of Lancaster University's Global Research Newsletter.

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