Seagate Argues Hard Drives Remain Eco-Friendly Amidst Solid State & Tape Alternatives
18 April 2025 · Uncategorized ·
Source: · https://technews.tw/2025/04/18/seagate-hard-drives-are-more-environmentally-friendly-than-ssds/
The escalating global increase in carbon emissions poses an increasingly significant challenge for AI development. A recent report by Blocks and Files details Seagate’s investigation into three popular data storage solutions—SSDs (Solid State Drives), traditional hard drives (HDDs), and LTO tapes—revealing that HDDs are the most environmentally friendly option overall.
The study assessed these storage types based on embedded carbon emissions across their product lifecycles, per terabyte (TB) capacity, and annualized emissions per TB. SSDs exhibited the highest total CO₂ emission at 4915 kg (equivalent to 160kg/TB or approximately 32kg annually). LTO tapes followed with a total of 48 kg in CO₂ emissions (2.66kg/TB, translating to less than 0.6kg per TB yearly), while HDDs demonstrated the lowest at just 29.7 kg in total carbon emission—less than 1kg/TB and under 0.2kg annually.
The rapid advancements of AI technology necessitate substantial computational power for large language models, leading to growing concerns about energy consumption. Data centers have emerged as one of the most resource-intensive sectors within digital economies; projections indicate a potential increase in electricity demand by 165% by 2030.
Despite these challenges, some individuals express skepticism regarding climate change mitigation efforts—for example, Google’s former CEO Eric Schmidt has stated that achieving climate goals within this industry is impossible due to organizational limitations.
Seagate proposes three key pillars for reducing carbon emissions: advancing liquid/submersion cooling and HVAC systems; extending product lifecycles through refurbishment or reuse programs; and encouraging shared responsibility among companies throughout the data center ecosystem.
The company maintains that traditional hard drives retain significant potential, defying expectations of obsolescence. Seagate underscores its commitment to developing more advanced HDDs for modern data centers with their latest Mozaic 3+ drive utilizing Heat-Assisted Magnetic Recording (HAMR) technology and a capacity up to 36TB.
The study assessed these storage types based on embedded carbon emissions across their product lifecycles, per terabyte (TB) capacity, and annualized emissions per TB. SSDs exhibited the highest total CO₂ emission at 4915 kg (equivalent to 160kg/TB or approximately 32kg annually). LTO tapes followed with a total of 48 kg in CO₂ emissions (2.66kg/TB, translating to less than 0.6kg per TB yearly), while HDDs demonstrated the lowest at just 29.7 kg in total carbon emission—less than 1kg/TB and under 0.2kg annually.
The rapid advancements of AI technology necessitate substantial computational power for large language models, leading to growing concerns about energy consumption. Data centers have emerged as one of the most resource-intensive sectors within digital economies; projections indicate a potential increase in electricity demand by 165% by 2030.
Despite these challenges, some individuals express skepticism regarding climate change mitigation efforts—for example, Google’s former CEO Eric Schmidt has stated that achieving climate goals within this industry is impossible due to organizational limitations.
Seagate proposes three key pillars for reducing carbon emissions: advancing liquid/submersion cooling and HVAC systems; extending product lifecycles through refurbishment or reuse programs; and encouraging shared responsibility among companies throughout the data center ecosystem.
The company maintains that traditional hard drives retain significant potential, defying expectations of obsolescence. Seagate underscores its commitment to developing more advanced HDDs for modern data centers with their latest Mozaic 3+ drive utilizing Heat-Assisted Magnetic Recording (HAMR) technology and a capacity up to 36TB.