Internet Uses 9.4% of U.S. Electricity, According to Uclue Research

Equipment powering the internet accounts for 9.4% of electricity demand in the U.S., and 5.3% of global demand, according to new research from Uclue.com.

The annual energy demand of computers, monitors, networking, and transmission equipment for the internet amount to 350 billion kWh in the US — 9.4% of the 3.7 trillion kWh used in total. Similarly, world demand for the internet is 868 billion kWh, or 5.3% of total global electricity consumption of 16.33 trillion kWh.

The largest demand for internet-related energy use comes from desktop computers and monitors, which account for two-thirds of total use. Networking equipment such as modems and routers are another sizable draw, as are the substantial power demands for data processing and equipment cooling at data centers. Actual data transmission, on the other hand, chiefly over telephone lines, is a small component — approximately 0.1% — of overall energy demand.

"As far as we know, this is the first estimate of total internet electricity use," said David Sarokin, the Uclue researcher who compiled the data. "The raw numbers were all out there, but they hadn't been assembled in this way before."

The full presentation and analysis of the data, "Energy Use of the Internet", can be seen at Uclue's website at: http://uclue.com/index.php?xq=724

About Uclue.com:
Uclue is a professional, online research service handling a wide variety of business, academic, health, engineering, legal and personal research needs.

Links and Contact Information:
The Energy Use of the Internet
http://uclue.com/index.php?xq=724

Uclue Homepage
http://uclue.com

David Sarokin
sarokin@gmail.com