How much power does it take to keep the Internet running?

How much power does it take to keep the Internet running?

Infograph breaks down the web’s electric bill

BY JEFFREY BAUSCH

The amount of power required to keep the Internet up and running is an afterthought for most of us. Truth be told, most of us are more concerned with how much power’s left in our laptop, tablet, or smartphone than what it’s taking to power the website we want to visit.

(Image via: messiah.edu)

But powering data centers like those belonging to Google, Facebook, and Amazon require a good deal of power. Actually, a TON of power. Between servers, cooling systems, and more, large-scale data centers consume roughly 30 billion watts every year, or about 1.5% of the world’s electricity. Throw in the rate at which the Internet is growing, and we can expect this number to increase exponentially in the coming years.

This raises some important questions: Are the centers being run as efficiently as possible right now? What’s the environmental impact of using this much power? WirelessSatelliteInternet.org put together the following infographic to break down what goes into getting the Internet to your device:

Infographic images via: wirelesssatelliteinternet.org/power-hungry-internet

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Learn more about Jeff Bausch.