Data centres: Developers hope fibre optics will cut power use

"I think we're at the end of copper," says Chris Sharp, the chief technology officer at data centre operator Digital Reality.

He's not saying that we are running out of copper, instead Sharp, and many others in the data centre industry, are betting that it will be used less.

Data centres use vast amounts of the metal: around 400 tonnes, external will go into a typical facility of around 100MW (data centre size is measured megawatts, a unit of electrical…