Lifeboat Foundation

Data centre energy consumption could be cut with new, ‘breakthrough’ photonic chips that are more efficient than today’s chips.

Data centres can consume up to 50 times more energy per square foot of floor space than a typical office building and account for roughly 2 per cent of all electricity use in the US.

In recent years, the number of data centres has risen rapidly due to soaring demand from the likes of Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft and Google.