RenewIT and the other projects in the Energy Efficient Data Centres in Smart Cities Research Cluster were presented at the second annual Telco Energy & Infrastructure Efficiency Conference in London on 11^th and 12^th November, 2014.

As with all information and communication technologies, data volumes and connectivity through telecommunications and particularly mobile continue to expand rapidly, while at the same time operators are under pressure to reduce energy use and carbon emissions. To meet these challenges, network operators are implementing smart grid, smart network solutions alongside renewable energy sources and a thorough review of practices to identify potential energy savings.

The conference was an opportunity for dialogue between the Data Centres and telecoms industries. On the one hand, Telcos need to maximise efficiency of Data Centres, which, along with the networks themselves and base stations, are important contributors to Telco energy use. But Data Centres can also benefit from the experiences of Telcos; there are also strong overlaps between the solutions available to network operators and those being explored by RenewIT, particularly in opportunities for integration with local infrastructure.