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Internet Eats Up Nearly 10% of U.S. Electricity

by Tim Stevens on September 28, 2007 at 02:02 PM

Internet Uses Nearly 10% of All U.S. ElectricityWhile we live in a time when it's hip to be green and energy efficient, it turns out that the new digital backbone of our very existence isn't as green as it could be. Data compiled by research firm Uclue indicates that the Internet burns 9.4 percent of all electricity consumed in the U.S., and 5.3 percent worldwide. Of course, this research isn't talking about your Facebook page -- it refers to all of the computers and networking equipment that the Internet runs on.

A collection of servers for hosting Web pages and other online content is known as a data center or server farm. Some of these centers are bigger than your local Super Wal-Mart and can draw huge amounts of electricity to keep thousands of burning-hot processors cooled down. This point is not lost on Google, which built its latest data center near a hydro-electric dam to save on power bills. IBM is also working to reduce power drain in its data centers by using liquid coolant that itself can generate electricity. Moves like this may help to reduce the overall drain of the Internet on our power resources, but as its usefulness continues to expand and more and more people get online, that 10 percent number is primed to explode.

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