With the arrival of December, the number of hyper scale data centers around the world has reached 300 facilities, according to a report from Synergy Research.

In the coming decades, our planet will be a very different place. By 2050, there will be an additional 3 billion people on Earth and 70% of the world’s population will be living in cities.

While many things about the future remain unclear, one thing is certain: more people in urban areas means an increased demand for new buildings. And unless we change the incredibly inefficient nature of today’s buildings, it means an unprecedented increase in energy use. It’s a ticking time bomb.

The fact is we can no longer ignore the 800-pound gorilla in the room – our inefficient buildings consume 40% of the world’s energy and are responsible for nearly the same amount of emitted carbon – more than in the transportation or industrial sectors.

The good news is that the opportunity exists to drastically reduce energy use in buildings in the next 40 years. All this is doable, in an efficient market, and we already have the technology solutions available that can reduce energy in buildings by at least 50%, possibly as much as 80%.

— The Guardian —