And three. Arcep publishes the third edition of its annual survey on the environmental impact of digital technology in France. This time, the regulatory authority for the telecoms sector has integrated, beyond the data reported by telecoms operators, two new categories of players: data center specialists and terminal manufacturers.
Bad news regarding the energy consumption of telecom networks. While greenhouse gas emissions in France fell by 2.7% in one year, the emissions of the four main players – Orange, SFR, Bouygues Telecom, Free – increased by 2% for the second year. consecutive and reach 382,000 tonnes of CO2 equivalent in 2022.
It is the mobile networks that weigh down the carbon footprint of operators. With the explosion of digital uses in mobility, their energy consumption increased by 14% in 2022 compared to 6% a year earlier. On the other hand, the energy consumption of fixed networks decreases in the same proportions (14%) mainly due to the transition from the copper network (ADSL) to optical fiber, which consumes almost four times less energy.
The number of terminals is decreasing, not the size of their screens
The situation is better on the terminal side with a drop in smartphone sales of 4.7% among telecom operators in 2022. A key point since according to a recent study by Arcep and Ademe, 79% of digital footprint comes from equipment and more particularly from their manufacturing compared to around 16% for data centers and 5% for networks.
Telecom operators are not taking advantage of the craze surrounding the second-hand market. The share of refurbished phones in their mobile phone sales remains very low, around 4%. It even decreases by 9% in 2022.
Beyond smartphones, Arcep is observing a more general decline in the number of digital equipment placed on the market. This reduction, which can help reduce their environmental footprint, is unfortunately counterbalanced by another trend: the increase in screen size.
With the exception of televisions, mobile phones, tablets and laptops have seen their screens enlarge over time, making these devices more polluting. The share of computer screens larger than 28 inches has increased by 6 points in one year.
TV boxes and decoders, unnecessary excess energy consumption
Arcep then became interested in devices that are generally never turned off: internet boxes and TV decoders. However, they are very energy intensive. Their annual energy consumption (3.3 TWh) represents 0.7% of electricity consumption in France and is three times higher than that of fixed telecoms networks. If consumption varies greatly from one model to another, Arcep notes that it remains invariable at 95% regardless of the user’s demands or the amount of data traffic.
There is room for improvement to reduce the electricity consumption of this equipment through better eco-design and the development of automatic standby functions as offered by the new Freebox Ultra from Free. Raising user awareness of eco-friendly actions such as turning off your box and decoder in the event of a prolonged absence from home can also contribute to the collective effort.
These data centers which are multiplying throughout the territory
Finally, Arcep looked at the consumption of data centers, the number of which is increasing exponentially with the rise of digital uses and cloud services. Greenhouse gas emissions from the 19 operators of these data centers identified by the control authority, i.e. around a hundred sites in France, increased by 14% in one year to reach 95,000 tonnes of CO2 equivalent in 2022.
The carbon footprint of data centers is essentially linked to their electricity consumption. This amounts to 2.1 TWh in 2022, a figure increasing by 15% in one year while electricity consumption in the tertiary sector in general has remained stable. Another indicator to take into account: the volume of water taken to cool the servers. If it remains modest – 482,000 m3 in 2022 – compared to other industrial activities, it is nevertheless increasing by 20% in one year.
Different techniques exist to reduce PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness), the main energy efficiency index for data centers. This includes optimizing the consumption of cooling systems. For example, the watercooling used by OVHcloud exploits the heat-transfer properties of water.
The very design of the sites, their location in countries with polar climates or the use of renewable energies reduce the carbon footprint. Waste energy from data centers can also be used to heat homes or businesses. Unsurprisingly, Arcep notes that the more recent a data center is, the greater its energy efficiency. A note of hope to end.
AI-generated visual, Microsoft Designer