Opinion | Big data is way hotter than you think

We are very careful about switching off lights when we leave a room. But even with a perfect PUE of 1, the total energy used by data centres might continue to increase to meet our growing digital needs. Here are a few policies that can help moderate the overall growth of fossil fuel energy use and greenhouse gas emissions from data centres in India. First, measuring and publicly reporting carbon dioxide emissions from energy use should be made mandatory for all data centres located in India. Second, state governments can make site clearance for a new data centre contingent on the company meeting part of its electricity use by generating solar power through rooftop panels or by purchasing renewable energy.