How Cloud Technology Impacts Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions

As the Energy Transition has continued to accelerate, software has become a main focal point in the reduction of emissions, as well as the support of producing reliable, affordable, and sustainable energy. Organizations are becoming more interested in the acquisition of renewable assets, getting more focused about the impact their operation has on the environment, and are thinking more than ever about how they can balance the pressures of profit and innovation.

One strategy we see many energy industrials exercise for both profit and innovation is cloud technology.

As many readers will know, cloud is an enabler of greater scale, elasticity, security, integration, and data storage. By hosting software in cloud environments, organizations can also take advantage of the technology to reduce overall costs and decrease the hardware required to host individual applications or enterprise solutions—freeing up their IT resources to focus on value-add projects.

Beyond the above, well-known benefits, moving applications to the cloud can help redirect the Scope 2 emissions from the energy companies to Scope 1 for a hyperscaler, ensuring they are prioritized and addressed at scale.

Consider this infographic created by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that summarizes Scope 1, 2 and 3 of greenhouse gases (GHG). This graphic provides an overview of GHG protocol scopes and emissions. Although this doesn’t encompass all scopes it helps to set the stage for the rest of this blog.

As you can see, GHG emissions are classified as:

Scope 3 is almost always the largest of the three, yet the most difficult to control.

GE Vernova is a proud strategic partner of Amazon Web Services (AWS) due to our shared vision in accelerating the Energy Transition. Today, GE Vernova’s Asset Performance Management (APM) software supports hundreds of organizations. By reducing unplanned downtime, providing predictive analytics, and actively monitoring asset heat rates, we are doing our part to support the path ahead. Meanwhile, AWS is building a sustainable business starting at the design of their data centers and ending with a commitment to the usage of renewable energy to run their operation.

Studies by 451 Research have shown that AWS’ infrastructure is 3.6 times more energy efficient than the median of U.S. enterprise data centers surveyed and up to five times more energy efficient than the average in Europe. 451 Research also found that AWS can lower customers’ workload carbon footprints by nearly 80% compared to surveyed enterprise data centers, and up to 96% once AWS is powered with 100% renewable energy—a target they on path to meet by 2025. It is important to note, that although moving to cloud does impact the efficiency of computing, it does not completely eliminate emissions.

With Vernova’s APM hosted in an AWS cloud environment, our software together can help provide insights that directly impact the reduction of Scope 1 emissions and support hosting software with renewable sources.

Emissions Immediately Impacted with Cloud

Ultimately, the path to producing available, reliable, and sustainable energy is not a straight line. At this moment, nearly every organization is learning how to best balance generating profits, reducing emissions, and increasing innovation to prepare for the future. With the continued acceleration of cloud technology and commitment to Sustainability, making the shift from on-premises workloads can be a beneficial start to becoming a more GHG conscious operation and increase your commitment of leveraging renewables.