Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Internet Uses 9.4% of Electricity In the US

Posted by Zonk on from the that's-it dept.

ribuck writes "Equipment powering the internet accounts for 9.4% of electricity demand in the U.S., and 5.3% of global demand, according to research by David Sarokin at online pay-for-answers service Uclue. Worldwide, that's 868 billion kilowatt-hours per year. The total includes the energy used by desktop computers and monitors (which makes up two-thirds of the total), plus other energy sinks including modems, routers, data processing equipment and cooling equipment."

2 of 271 comments (clear)

  1. Low Wattage Laptops by lobiusmoop · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This is why I think the OLPC project shouldn't be limited to third world countries. These laptops run on only a couple of watts! If more first-world computer users used them for basic surfing instead of 200 watt gaming rigs, much energy/CO2/fossil fuel could be saved I think.

    --
    "I bless every day that I continue to live, for every day is pure profit."
  2. But what does it save? by redefinescience · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I wonder how much energy is actually SAVED because of the internet, quick example: email. How much energy is used shipping a letter across the country?