Trends and policies for developing Green Data Centers

NGÀY ĐĂNG 21/11/2025

Võ Hồng Tiên

In the era of digital transformation and artificial intelligence, data centers have become the foundation of every technology infrastructure. However, their rapid development has led to huge power consumption and significant CO2 emissions. In response to this challenge, Green Data Centers have emerged as an inevitable solution - ensuring high processing performance while minimizing environmental impact and long-term operating costs.

Energy challenges of the digital economy

The explosion of global digital infrastructure in the era of cloud computing, artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT) and 5G is leading to an unprecedented energy consumption crisis. Currently, data centers account for about 3-5% of total global electricity consumption, and this number could double by 2030 without effective mitigation measures.

New generation AI chips and GPUs have increasingly high power density, generating a lot of heat, causing power consumption per rack to increase 3-5 times compared to 2013. This makes the cooling system an economic and environmental bottleneck, forcing data centers to innovate their infrastructure if they want to maintain stable operations.

In Vietnam, setting a PUE performance ceiling of no more than 1.4 in new data centers is a strategic move. This regulation not only demonstrates a commitment to reducing emissions, but also aims to prepare the national infrastructure capacity to serve high-density AI workloads in the future, without overloading the national grid.

The concept of Green Data Center and its benefits

What is a Green Data Center?

Green Data Center is an IT infrastructure model in which the entire mechanical, electrical, lighting and IT systems are designed, built and operated to maximize energy efficiency and minimize environmental impact, while ensuring the highest performance, availability and information security.

The four core principles of Green Data Centers include:

• Energy efficiency: reducing power consumption for cooling and processing.
• Optimal hardware and infrastructure design.
• Smart resource management - water, electricity, heat, space.
• Compliance with international standards and regulations (Compliance & Certification).

The international community has established many standards to measure and guide Green Data Centers, including:

• ISO/IEC 30134 standard on power usage effectiveness (PUE).
• ITU-T L.1300 standard issued by ITU-T SG5 Working Group.
• Code of Conduct for Energy Efficiency of Data Centers issued by the European Union.
• ISO 50001 / ISO 14001 / LEED / BREEAM - Complementary Standards for Energy and Environmental Management.

These standards not only quantify energy efficiency, but also guide the design, operation and lifecycle assessment of data centers - from construction to demolition.

Benefits of Green Data Centers

Converting to a Green Data Center model brings important multi-dimensional benefits:

Optimizing operating costs and Increasing profits (ROI)

• Green Data Centers significantly reduce electricity and cooling costs, which account for up to 40% of the total operating budget.
• Thanks to the application of technologies such as Free Cooling, Liquid Cooling, AI energy coordination, the PUE index can be reduced from 2.2 to 1.5, saving 25–35% of electricity per year.
• In addition, reusing waste heat for civil purposes helps shorten the payback period and generate additional ancillary energy revenue.

Meeting the Sustainable Development Goals (ESG)

• Green data centers are a key element in a business's ESG strategy, helping to reduce carbon emissions, save water and improve transparency in environmental reporting.
• Enterprises operating green data centers are given priority access to green investment capital, enhancing brand reputation and competitive advantage in the global supply chain.

Improving national competitiveness and attracting investment

• At the national level, Green data centers help reduce energy pressure, ensure digital infrastructure security and attract high-quality FDI.
• Vietnam's PUE < 1.4 target is in line with global trends, but it is necessary to improve the legal mechanism and DPPA to support the use of renewable energy, thereby creating a foundation for a sustainable and regionally competitive data center ecosystem.

Technology and solutions to create a green data center

To achieve a PUE index below 1.4 and move towards sustainable operation, modern data centers (TTDL) need to synchronously apply advanced cooling, energy management and IT optimization technologies.

Cooling revolution - The foundation of green performance

In the context of hot and humid tropical climate and high AI load density, traditional air cooling solutions are no longer suitable. Instead, TTDL needs to switch to:

• Liquid Cooling (LC) and Immersion Cooling (IC), which help dissipate heat 3,000 times more effectively than air.
• The application of LC/IC helps reduce 10 - 18% of power consumption, ensuring high performance for AI/HPC applications and meeting PUE < 1.4 standards.

Renewable energy solutions and smart management

• Integrating green energy such as: solar, wind, hydropower, combining storage systems and microgrids, helping to reduce CUE and ensure stable supply.
• The lack of a DPPA mechanism is a major barrier that needs to be completed soon to allow TTDL to sign a direct power purchase contract from renewable sources.
• AI applications and server virtualization help optimize operations, adjust cooling and power systems in real time, reduce costs and improve efficiency.

Waste heat reuse - From cost to asset

• The waste heat recovery system (WHR) allows the reuse of thermal energy for heating, district cooling or high-tech agriculture, contributing to improving the ERE index.
• This model not only reduces emissions but also creates additional revenue and increases return on investment (ROI) for operators.

Optimize IT and management infrastructure

• Server virtualization, energy management according to ISO 50001 and AI/ML applications help monitor PUE continuously, reduce resource waste and operating costs.
• Combined with automated management systems (DCIM) to intelligently adjust capacity, load and environmental conditioning.

Optimize CT and management infrastructure

• Server virtualization, energy management according to ISO 50001 and AI/ML applications help continuously monitor PUE, reduce resource waste and operating costs.
• Combined with automated management systems (DCIM) to intelligently adjust capacity, load and environmental conditioning.

Orientation for developing Green Data Centers in Vietnam

Context and domestic development trends

In the context of the digital economy becoming a new growth driver, Vietnam is witnessing the explosion of AI, cloud computing, Big Data and online platforms. The telecommunications, banking, e-commerce and e-government sectors all promote the need for storage and processing of huge data - leading to the strong development of domestic Data Center systems.

Leading corporations such as Viettel IDC, VNPT, FPT, CMC are investing in building large-scale data centers that meet international standards, aiming to reduce energy consumption, increase operational efficiency and ensure sustainability. However, the speed of infrastructure expansion is putting significant pressure on the national power system, posing an urgent need to green the data infrastructure.

Vietnam is gradually integrating into the trend of shifting to a Green Data Center model through specific policy moves and development orientations:

The Telecommunications Law 2023 clearly defines the orientation for developing telecommunications infrastructure, cloud computing and data centers "in a sustainable and modern direction", creating a legal corridor for investing in green data centers.

• Decision No. 36/QD-TTg dated January 11, 2024 of the Prime Minister approving the Information and Communications Infrastructure Planning for the 2021–2030 period, with a vision to 2050, requires:
• Newly invested data centers must meet international green standards.
• PUE must not exceed 1.4.

And be planned in association with renewable energy areas, ensuring connectivity, backup and efficient exploitation.

These orientations clearly demonstrate Vietnam's determination to develop sustainable digital infrastructure, while fulfilling its commitment to strive for "0" net emissions by 2050.

Current situation and challenges

Despite its great potential, Vietnam is still in the early stages of the green transition in the data center sector:

• There is no separate national standard for Green Data Centers, while businesses still mainly apply international Tier or PUE standards.
• Lack of incentives for green investment, such as tax incentives, financial support or direct power purchase agreements (DPPA) for data centers using renewable energy.
• High initial investment costs and limitations in cooling technology and energy monitoring are also major barriers for small and medium enterprises.

Opportunities and development orientations

To build and operate green data centers, Vietnam needs to synchronize many solutions:

• Build a national Green Data Center certification framework and mechanism, approaching international standards such as ISO 30134, LEED, or EU Code of Conduct for Data Centers.
• Encourage and promote DPPA policies, allowing data centers to purchase electricity directly from renewable energy producers (wind power, solar power).
• Prioritize planning data centers in areas with cool climates, near renewable energy sources to reduce cooling costs and carbon emissions.
• Encourage the application of energy-saving technology: evaporative liquid cooling suitable for tropical environments, server consolidation, use of new generation CPU/GPU, SSD storage, and intelligent management system integrated with AI/ML.
• Applying a modular TTDL model, allowing flexible expansion, reducing initial investment costs and easy upgrading in each phase.