Cloud Computing: 30 billion watts and rising – balancing the internet’s energy and infrastructure needs

A new report by The New York Times on the internet’s energy consumption estimates that data centers worldwide use 30 billion watts of electricity, including as much as 10 billion watts in the United States alone. According to McKinsey & Company, in a report commissioned by the Times, between 6 and 12 percent of that energy powers actual computations; the rest keeps servers running in case of a surge or crash. "This is an industry dirty secret," an anonymous executive told the Times. Other sources quoted in the story call the growing energy needs of servers unsustainable and a "waste," the result of building up servers beyond current demands by companies that want "too many insurance policies" to avoid even a millisecond of downtime.

"Power, Pollution and the Internet" is the first entry in a multi-part investigative series on the environmental impact of cloud computing. Judging by this opening salvo, the series promises to be sharply critical of the technology industry. It calls the industry secretive, slow to change its practices, and unrealistic in its presentation of the internet as an environmental boon — taking particular care to single out Google, Amazon, and Facebook for specific consideration…