The Big Question: Is glass the answer to increasing data centre efficiency?

Did you know that the worldwide photonics market was worth approximately $983.5 billion (€906.6bn) in 2024 and is expected to surge to $1,642.6bn (€1,514.1bn) by 2032, according to Fortune Business Insights? 

Photonic chips carry and process data with light, instead of electricity, and they’re used in a variety of sectors. These include healthcare, data communication and engineering, as well as for things like autonomous driving and lab-on-a-chip devices.

Photonic chip manufacturing company Ephos is making waves in the sector by replacing the silicon traditionally used in chips with glass. 

In this episode of The Big Question, CEO and co-founder of Ephos Andrea Rocchetto discusses how glass chips can help data centres be more energy efficient, as well as outlining the challenges facing tech companies in Europe at the moment. 

Data centres currently account for about 1% to 1.5% of worldwide electricity consumption, according to the International Energy Agency. In Ireland, data centres currently account for more than 20% of all electricity consumption. 

The agency also highlighted that by 2026, data centres across the world could potentially be using about 1,000 terawatt-hours per year, which is roughly equivalent to  Japan’s entire electricity consumption. 

Currently, tech giant Google is the only company that has deployed photonic technology at scale. This has already slashed data centre energy usage by 40%.

In turn, this has allowed the company to save money, mainly related to network infrastructure setup costs.

However, Google uses silicon chips at the moment, with Rocchetto pointing out that glass chips can be about 20 times more efficient. That’s compared to the leading chip manufacturing technology on the market