MEXICO CITY, November 3 (IPS) – At first look, a knowledge centre in Mexico attracts little consideration, as it’s often housed in an industrial park, out of public view. However, along with emitting greenhouse gases comparable to carbon dioxide (CO2) and nitrogen oxides, its cooling and fireplace suppression methods comprise substances with sturdy environmental and well being impacts: the so-called “without end chemical substances”.
IPS discovered that no less than 5 knowledge centres working in Mexico use hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), a gaggle of artificial gases with a worldwide warming potential as much as 7,000 occasions larger than that of CO2, the human-induced gasoline answerable for world warming. These gases even have an atmospheric lifetime of 15 years, in accordance with knowledge from ATMOsphere, an unbiased world accelerator for the air con market.
Analysis printed by U.S. authorities establishments has concluded that these gases accumulate in air, water and soil, and may be absorbed by animals and crops by way of ingestion or contact. They’re additionally extremely cellular, to the purpose of being current within the Arctic and the Himalayas, in accordance with a 2023 examine.
Eternally chemical substances, often known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), are a big household of over 15,000 artificial chemical substances. They’re wanted to chill the a whole bunch of servers housed in knowledge centres, which is essential to forestall overheating and interruptions to their operations. Nonetheless, the extent of their use in Mexico is unknown.
Mexico hosts no less than 144 knowledge centres run by 44 suppliers in 69 cities, however a lot of the firms don’t disclose whether or not their cooling and fireplace suppression methods use without end chemical substances.
Though Mexico is a celebration to the Stockholm Conference on Persistent Natural Pollution, a world settlement that entered into drive in 2004 and goals to eradicate and prohibit the manufacturing and use of harmful chemical substances, these substances usually are not regulated underneath nationwide legislation, there isn’t any stock of contaminated websites and there’s no systematic monitoring.
Teresa Roldán, member of the environmental advocacy group Vocer@s de la Madre Tierra in Querétaro, Mexico’s knowledge centre hub in central Mexico, denounces the shortage of oversight by the authorities and of transparency by the businesses.
“Since they (the information centres) arrived, there was no clear data, and because of this (the federal government) has allow them to function with none supervision. We all know nothing in regards to the chemical substances. (…) They go away us in uncertainty in regards to the substances and the discharges of liquid waste. There isn’t a manner they don’t seem to be contaminating”, she mentioned to IPS.
Roldán and her group have showered state and federal authorities with requests for data on points comparable to water use, greenhouse gasoline emissions and waste administration, however the authorities say they don’t have the data or refuse to supply it.
Widespread use
Many of the knowledge centres working within the nation wouldn’t have Environmental Influence Assessments describing the kind of cooling and fireplace suppression methods they use. Only some firms have made the data out there on their web sites.
For instance, the MEX3 knowledge centre of the Mexican company KIO Networks, positioned in Mexico Metropolis, explains the operation of a really early smoke detection equipment (VESDA) that mechanically detects smoke even earlier than it’s seen and proceeds to extinguish it. It really works with the gaseous hydrofluorocarbon FM-200, often known as HFC-227ea or heptafluoropropane.
The KIO MEX5 knowledge centre, within the municipality of Tultitlán, within the state of Mexico, which borders Mexico Metropolis, additionally says it makes use of a clear agent suppression system. Most clear brokers are hydrofluorocarbons, though the corporate doesn’t specify which one it makes use of. The identical is true of the KIO MTY1 centre, positioned within the municipality of San Pedro Garza García, subsequent to Monterrey within the state of Nuevo León, northern Mexico.
Clear agent fireplace suppression methods are usually used as a substitute of water-based methods due to their non-conductive, residue-free properties, whereas the latter can injury servers.
Novec, an evaporative fluid, has turn into the favored selection for high-capacity knowledge centres. The substance boils on contact with digital elements and thus absorbs a considerable amount of latent warmth of vaporisation.
The Mx1 Querétaro facility, owned by U.S.-based Equinix Inc., makes use of Novec 1230 gasoline in its fireplace suppression system, which comprises PFAS. The U.S.-based 3M, its producer, has introduced the discontinuation of Novec to adjust to worldwide laws to eradicate the usage of without end chemical substances.
The info centre of the binational NGX Networks in Nogales, within the northern state of Sonora, additionally makes use of a refrigerant gasoline containing without end chemical substances.
Varied scientific research have discovered PFAS on the poles and within the oceans. A number of research in the US and Europe hyperlink them to cancers of the kidney, pancreas, testicles, uterus and endometrium, in addition to to a number of myeloma. They’re additionally thought-about endocrine disruptors. Their helpful life exceeds 20 years. Within the PFAS life cycle, the utilization stage is the crucial one due to its excessive emissions to the atmosphere.
Hydrofluorocarbons emerged underneath the Montreal Protocol, which got here into drive in 1989, to exchange gases containing chlorine and bromine that deplete the ozone layer and to satisfy rising demand for industrial, industrial and residential refrigeration. However these gases are very highly effective local weather pollution, which is why they’re the goal of world discount, as occurred with the halogens lined by the Montreal Protocol.
The danger of chemical contamination clashes with the Mexican authorities’s promotion of knowledge centres as a part of its drive for industrialisation underneath the Nationwide Technique for Industrialisation and Shared Prosperity, often known as Plan México, a mixture of power, know-how, pharmaceutical and even meals tasks.
It additionally provides to the centres’ excessive power and water consumption in locations already struggling water stress, comparable to Mexico Metropolis and Querétaro.
Eternally chemical substances in cooling methods
Latest analysis by Leonard Siegel, the California-based non-governmental organisation Heart for Public Environmental Oversight govt director, exhibits that the information centre business makes use of PFAS as an alternative choice to scale back the usage of water, the liquid mostly utilized in cooling methods.
Like Roldán in Querétaro, Siegel questions the lack of know-how on the without end chemical substances consumed in knowledge centres in the US.
“The businesses usually are not sharing the data. And we are actually extra involved in regards to the deliberate ones than those underneath development”, he mentioned to IPS, citing their measurement, the dimensions of their operations and, consequently, the sort and amount of apparatus required.
In each Mexico and the US, knowledge centre firms don’t disclose the quantity of refrigerant they exchange every year, the chemical releases throughout the regular operation of the centres, or the losses throughout the set up and upkeep of apparatus.
Neither is it clear whether or not without end chemical substances contaminate the wastewater discharged by knowledge centres.
PFAS are utilized in knowledge centres primarily as refrigerant gases and in immersion cooling fluids. The commonest cooling technique consists of utilizing PFAS gases in a compressor system, like a fridge, to chill air or water for the computer systems.
The issue grows when the degradation of PFAS results in the formation of trifluoroacetic acid (TFA), which has appeared in rain, beer, tea and fruit crops, in accordance with a 2024 examine by 5 consultants from scientific establishments in Norway, Sweden and Switzerland. TFA alters ranges of thyroxine, a thyroid gland hormone that’s important for regulating human metabolism, in accordance with a 2025 examine by 11 specialists from Austria.
Conventional knowledge centres use heating, air flow and air con (HVAC) methods that embrace a condenser, whose foremost operate is to transform vapour into liquid or launch warmth to the exterior atmosphere. Most air conditioners comprise without end chemical substances. Within the HVAC case, these liquids may be recycled or turn into a part of the liquid waste the power discharges.
A extra superior setup is the pc room air conditioner (CRAC), which regulates temperature, humidity and airflow utilizing a compressor, an evaporator and a condenser, and is designed for small and medium-sized knowledge centres.
Bigger amenities function pc room air handlers (CRAH), utilizing chilled water from a central chiller plant. These require higher funding in infrastructure however are extra environment friendly, which leads to long-term financial savings, as defined by Exposiciones Industriales de México, organiser of the most important air con commerce honest within the nation.
Traditionally, knowledge centre chillers and CRAC and CRAH methods have used the refrigerant gasoline R-134a, which comprises PFAS.
Knowledge centres of firms comparable to Equinix, KIO and Scala use CRAC or CRAH methods, in accordance with their public studies. The power of the U.S.-based HostDime, deliberate to function in Guadalajara, could have an HVAC system.
The density of a knowledge centre pertains to the quantity of computing capability put in in a given space. Knowledge centres presently being constructed to assist the event and operation of synthetic intelligence methods can focus tens of kilowatts in a single construction.
This provides an thought of the quantity of warmth to be generated and of the without end chemical substances or water wanted to chill the servers.
For instance, Ascenty-01, Microsoft’s knowledge centre, plans a primary section of 4 knowledge rooms, out of a complete of 10, with a complete of two,992 digital tools racks, in accordance with the environmental impression evaluation obtained by the Latin American Observatory of Knowledge Facilities. Every knowledge room, with a capability of two MW, could have 13 CRAH models, 11 in operation and two on standby.
KIO and Ascenty didn’t reply to the reporter’s request for remark. The Mexican Affiliation of Knowledge Centres initially replied to the reporter however declined to reply the question on the topic. Nor the Ministry of the Surroundings and Pure Sources answered the query in regards to the lack of PFAS regulation within the nation.
In line with Noemí Quiroz, senior advisor for non-governmental organisation Centro de Estudios e Investigación en Asuntos Públicos (CEIAP), putting in knowledge centres with no regulatory framework to determine their constructive and adverse penalties has been a foul thought.
“There isn’t a regulatory framework for environmental points or for placement, and there’s no standardisation of procedures. The states wouldn’t have regulation both. Worldwide proof was not thought-about. The scenario now requires regulation”, she advised IPS.
In an upcoming examine, CEIAP assessed all of the nation’s cities to determine probably the most appropriate ones for constructing knowledge centres, based mostly on the supply of assets comparable to water, land, labour and safety.
It additionally analysed the digital coverage of the nation’s 32 states towards 79 requirements, seven of them on knowledge centres.
Suspensions within the face of danger
In a doc submitted to federal authorities, activist Roldán requested a suspension of the operations of all knowledge centres in Querétaro, in addition to a moratorium on the approval of latest tasks, till water, environmental and danger data on substances comparable to without end chemical substances is made public. “What drawback are they going to depart us with? We should forestall them earlier than they hold granting extra land concessions and electrical energy”, she warned.
For Siegel, the prospect of amenities with higher computing capability opens a window to curb additional chemical air pollution, as he believes that “we’re in a scenario the place now we have a possibility to cease the usage of PFAS in cooling earlier than its use begins, however highly effective firms are ready for authorisation for his or her commercialisation” in the US.
Specialist Quiroz suggests a nationwide coverage that identifies and fills current regulatory gaps and addresses territorial and power planning, in addition to encouraging the disclosure of knowledge.
“A regulation decided by measurement (of the power), with particular standards and municipal and federal jurisdictions, that establishes comparable indicators for power, water and resource-use effectivity, by way of which regulators can be taught the traits of knowledge centres” she proposed.
Whereas knowledge centres course of poisons, solutions should emerge from the depths of their highly effective methods, as Roldán and Siegel demand: which substances, and in what portions, they use to chill their computing methods; how a lot they launch into the atmosphere; what they do to forestall these releases; what they do to exchange hazardous substances and polluting gases; and whether or not they are going to be chargeable for the environmental injury.
*This investigation was supported by the grant ‘Un Polo a Tierra’ escuela de periodismo para la industrialización verde en México’, sponsored by Periodistas por el Planeta.
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