As we reflect on 2024, Canada’s data centre market has shown remarkable growth while navigating complexities related to energy supply, regulatory frameworks, and sustainability. These dynamics underscore Canada’s potential to emerge as a leader in the global digital economy. Below, we explore the year’s key developments and opportunities shaping the future of Canada’s data centre landscape.
Energy: Balancing Supply and Demand
The rapid adoption and expansion in size and capabilities of AI technologies have amplified energy demands across the data centre industry. Rack densities, previously maxing out at 2 kW, can now reach 200+ kW, requiring innovative construction techniques to handle these power-intensive workloads. This year, advancements in inference AI at the edge – including network equipment and GPU deployment – emerged as a potential game-changer, signalling new dimensions to energy demand that will likely accelerate by 2025.
While energy availability remains a consideration, Canada’s clean energy grid and growing focus on renewable energy solutions present opportunities for sustainable growth. By investing in infrastructure to meet increasing energy demands, Canada can enhance its competitive edge in the global market.
Sustainability: Innovations Drive Progress
Sustainability remained at the forefront in 2024, with data centres adopting hybrid, liquid, and alternative cooling systems to improve energy efficiency. Technologies such as Enwave’s Deep Lake Water Cooling system in Toronto highlight Canada’s commitment to reducing the environmental impact of data centre operations. These advancements position Canada as a trailblazer in sustainable practices, particularly as global demand for greener technologies continues to grow.
Governments are also exploring new sustainability initiatives, such as mandating improved power usage effectiveness (PUE) metrics. These measures encourage innovation and align the industry with broader environmental goals. With its focus on renewable energy and cutting-edge cooling solutions, Canada is well-equipped to meet future sustainability challenges while enhancing operational efficiency.
Growing Market: Opportunities for Expansion
Canada’s data centre market is evolving, with 2024 showcasing significant opportunities. The country offers a unique value proposition, including its cool climate, robust data privacy regulations, rapid technological advancements, and a clean energy grid. These factors make Canada a prime location for organizations looking to expand their digital infrastructure.
Telehouse Canada is well-positioned to capitalize on these opportunities. Leveraging its deep expertise in connectivity and a strong commitment to innovation, the company is dedicated to advancing energy-efficient practices, adopting sustainable methods, and enhancing operational resilience. As the market evolves, Telehouse Canada is adopting collaborative approaches to ensure long-term growth. Through these efforts, the company is helping position Canada as a leader in modern digital infrastructure, driving both local and global advancements.
Looking ahead to 2025, Canada has significant opportunities to capture incoming investment, leverage the rapid expansion of AI, and position its data centre market for long-term, sustainable growth. By focusing on energy solutions, sustainability, and strategic investment in key markets, the sector will continue establishing itself as a leader in the global market and attract the next wave of innovation.
Organizations around the world have an increasing responsibility to help protect the environment – a duty to consider the impact of their operations on the wider society and take sufficient steps to implement initiatives that benefit future generations.
The KDDI Group Mission Statement refers to the creation of a truly connected society. The group is strongly committed to connecting and protecting lives, hearts and minds. KDDI Vision 2030 was formulated to help achieve that future society by enhancing the power to connect and foster sustainable growth.
Telehouse, a KDDI Group Company, is very much involved in building these connections and driving towards sustainable practices. At Telehouse, every connection matters. We focus on building and maintaining human connections as much as digital connections and do so by expanding our digital ecosystem, supporting emerging innovations, deepening our sustainability commitments, and helping to improve the lives of the people within the communities in which we operate.
Protecting our planet for the future
Telehouse has taken a multi-faceted approach to improve energy efficiency such as utilizing renewable energy, sustainable technologies and formation of strategic partnerships.
“Aligning with the Telehouse global target of using 100% renewable electricity in our data centres around the world by the end of the 2025 fiscal year, Telehouse Thailand has recently become the first data centre in Thailand to be 100% powered by renewable energy. We want to help overcome the current environmental challenges in Bangkok and contribute to the development of a digital society in Thailand by providing the ICT infrastructure that is indispensable to its success.”
Ken Miyashita, Managing Director, Telehouse Thailand
Telehouse Europe is aligned with the aims of the Climate Neutral Data Centre Pact (CNDCP). CEO of Telehouse Germany, Dr Béla Waldhauser is passionate about the green agenda and a board member of the CNDCP organization.
“Our data centres in France, Germany and UK procure 100% of electricity from renewable sources. Telehouse is actively working to provide waste heat to district heating systems across Europe. We’re committed to improving efficiency in energy and water usage. We use cold and hot air containment, a strategic layout within a data centre, to enhance cooling efficiency.
In Frankfurt, Telehouse Germany is setting a benchmark in sustainability by using waste heat from its data centres to supply over 60% of the heating and hot water needs for the neighbouring FRANKY residential quarter. This initiative, using only 2% of the data centres’ waste heat, supports 1,300 residential units and saves around 400 tonnes of CO2 emissions annually. The additional demand is met by Frankfurt utility company Mainova’s combined heat and power plant, helping the district achieve the ‘KfW Efficiency House 55’ standard. We hope to extend these waste heat capabilities to other countries in Europe.”
Dr Béla Waldhauser, CEO of Telehouse Germany and board member of CNDCP organization
Similarly, at Telehouse Paris, the company is supporting the local community by exporting the heat generated in its data centres to residential areas, schools and swimming pools.
“In Canada, we are making use of Enwave’s deep lake water cooling system, which harnesses the cold temperature at the bottom of Lake Ontario, to cool our Toronto data centres. This also cools hospitals, data centres, educational campuses, government buildings, commercial and residential properties. Heat transfer technology takes the heat generated by our data centres and other Enwave customer facilities to warm the drinking water for Toronto residents. Across the city, Enwave’s DLWC technology displaces 55 MW of energy a year from Toronto’s electrical grid, equivalent to powering 40,000 households.”
Mark Faria, Director of Operations, Telehouse Canada
In the UK, Telehouse’s data centres use the 3D visualisation tool, Ekkosense, to pinpoint areas of overcooling and potential hotspots.
More broadly, Telehouse has also taken significant steps to revamp its infrastructure for greater energy efficiency and sustainability by continuously investing in CAPEX across various systems. Over in the Asia-Pacific region, our data centres in Beijing have switched to LED lighting to reduce energy use by 45%. Moreover, lighting upgrades to LED systems across data centres have been a key part of Telehouse’s sustainability initiatives globally. LED lighting is far more energy-efficient than traditional lighting and contributes to lower energy consumption across facilities. To optimize cooling, Telehouse Europe continues to invest in upgrading its air conditioning systems to allow for better temperature control, reduced energy use, and minimized environmental impact.
Supporting people with socially responsible initiatives
Telehouse is not just connecting with communities through sustainable actions, but with socially responsible initiatives as well. Telehouse Germany has public open days for its data centres and trains apprentices, along with students, on work-study degree programmes.
Telehouse France has partnered with “Les Plombiers du Numérique” to open a new training school in Paris Magny campus, giving young people from underprivileged backgrounds digital infrastructure training, and helping to encourage community engagement and professional integration.
In the US, Telehouse America is running an internship programme to help train the new generation interested in developing technical careers. Similarly, Telehouse Hong Kong offers students at the Hong Kong Institute of Vocational Education the opportunity to gain work experience on-site before they graduate.
Telehouse Thailand aims to build the young generation’s data centre knowledge by supporting Thai and Japanese students from various universities in the Global Study Tour 2023 Summer Outline of Implementation at the Japanese Association in Thailand. This helped them develop practical experience and boosted their career prospects while encouraging innovative thinking and problem-solving for sustainable advancement.
“Telehouse is also committed to helping women overcome challenges in joining the data centre industry. It’s important that girls at school are encouraged to pursue STEM careers, and we’re actively encouraging a more diverse profile of workers. Telehouse Europe recently hosted a ‘Spilling the Tea – Women and Their Allies Afternoon Tea’ to educate both men and women about the challenges women face in the workplace.”
Dr Béla Waldhauser, CEO of Telehouse Germany and board member of CNDCP organization
Telehouse is also involved in charitable operations. In London, we have contributed to digital inclusion in the local community with a donation of 40 laptops to numerous Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS) organisations in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets (LBTH).
Telehouse Thailand, has committed to supporting wildlife and biodiversity projects and together with our partner National Telecommunications (NT), has donated to the Rural Restoration Foundation of Thailand helping to ensure the survival of sea turtle hatchlings. An endangered species, sea turtles are crucial to marine food chains and ecosystems. Coupled with this, we have also donated funds to the Thailand Children’s Home in Nakhon Ratchasima to support homeless children and their development.
Caring about every connection
As a KDDI group member, Telehouse cares about every connection. Whether it’s digital connections supporting global communications, relationships with our customers, or the impact we have on society, we understand the importance of fostering meaningful connections. This commitment extends to our environmental responsibilities, where we harness cutting-edge technology to drive meaningful sustainability efforts.
Building on this commitment, Telehouse is developing social responsibility initiatives to support the underprivileged in our society and to help young people who aspire to work in the technology sector develop the right skills. Through these initiatives, we will continue to work towards the creation of a truly connected society.
Find out more about Telehouse’s global and connected operations here.
