Here’s how much Information Technology is causing Global Energy Consumption (infographic)

Internet and technology are advancing every passing day with a lot of new devices coming into the market. The computing power is increasing and so is the energy consumption of these devices. Our mobiles, computers, laptops, and others gadgets rely on energy to operate all the time. The main sources consuming maximum energy are networks, data centers and devices. Here are some stats that you need to know about energy consumption by IT.
  • Computers consume energy more than networks and data centers
  • 36% of energy is consumed by communication networks, 30% by data centers, and 34% by computers
  • The energy required by digital devices is much more (7%) than the global energy consumption all over the world (3%)
  • Production and operation of ICT will rise to about 21% in 2030
  • 70 billion kilowatt-hours a year are required to run the internet
  • There are about 509,147 data centers that are 26.6 million square meters with 430 hyperscale data-centers
  • There are about 8,918,157,500 active mobile devices consuming about 2 kWh/year energy
  • Google only consumes about 0.013% of the world’s energy
  • The energy consumption by users is about 55% and 45% by manufacturers
  • There are about 20% phone users, 19% data centers, and 16% networks consuming energy
  • Computer manufacturing takes about 17% energy, TVs take 11%, smartphones take 11% and others take 6%
  • About 0.0003 kWh is consumed while charging mobile over USB for 7 minutes
  • Visiting Amazon consumes 0.0003 kWh, streaming 5 MB MP3 song takes 0.025 kWh, watching 5 minutes YouTube video takes 0.065 kWh, streaming 3 GB movie takes 14.65 kWh, and online video game takes about 78.13 kWh
  • Bitcoin takes about 20 TWh energy per year with aluminum consuming more energy as compared to other cryptocurrencies
These are only a few facts that show how much energy technological sector is consuming. With the development of new devices, energy consumption will also increase rapidly.

This is not it, streaming a video also consume a lot of energy. Now if your work requires working on a computer and laptop all day then you can imagine the total energy consumption of all day.

A lot of people are associated with the technological sector and the rate of employees in the sector will rapidly increase in the future. With so many people working in the sector, energy consumption will also increase.


Although there are efficient ways to produce electricity today, but the resources might not be enough to fulfill the future need of energy by the technological center.

The tech sector needs to work on devices that consume less energy and does not burden the world with their pressure. If there are not enough energy resources than the world will suffer, which is not a desirable condition.

We need to grow green – The Global Energy Consumption of Information Technologies [Infographic]
Infographic courtesy of: GoGlobe.

Featured photo: Gorodenkoff / Getty Images

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