The internet eats up less energy than you might think
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Re: The internet eats up less energy than you might think
#2Re: The internet eats up less energy than you might think
#3Something that the article does not mention is that most of the large cloud providers are committed to 100% renewables when it comes to their energy usage. E.g. Google has been working on this for ages and most / all (?) of their data centers are running on clean energy.
Most of the non sustainable energy consumption happens on the consumer side where most of us are dependent on grids that are also shifting to more sustainable energy sources but still have some way to go.
Re: The internet eats up less energy than you might think
#4Something that the article does not mention is that most of the large cloud providers are committed to 100% renewables when it comes to their energy usage. E.g. Google has been working on this for ages and most / all (?) of their data centers are running on clean energy. Most of the non sustainable energy consumption happens on the consumer side where most of us are dependent on grids that are also shifting to more s…
Why is "grids" the consumer side?
Re: The internet eats up less energy than you might think
#5Something that the article does not mention is that most of the large cloud providers are committed to 100% renewables when it comes to their energy usage. E.g. Google has been working on this for ages and most / all (?) of their data centers are running on clean energy. Most of the non sustainable energy consumption happens on the consumer side where most of us are dependent on grids that are also shifting to more s…
Same for Microsoft, I think they intend to be carbon negative by 2025. And still there's people in the Netherlands complaining that datacentres use up too much of the green energy available in the Netherlands. Truly backwards way of thinking
Re: The internet eats up less energy than you might think
#6Something that the article does not mention is that most of the large cloud providers are committed to 100% renewables when it comes to their energy usage. E.g. Google has been working on this for ages and most / all (?) of their data centers are running on clean energy. Most of the non sustainable energy consumption happens on the consumer side where most of us are dependent on grids that are also shifting to more s…
> most of the large cloud providers are committed to 100% renewables
I’m very skeptical of this. Until now this narrative has often turned out to be nothing more than corporate greenwashing, without tackling the root causes of the problem or helping shift the underlying systems. Take the example of Microsoft buying up renewable energy in Holland: https://youtube.com/watch?v=OiPoR9OvD0Y (Nederland als harde schijf | Zondag met [Arjen] Lubach)
Re: The internet eats up less energy than you might think
#7Something that the article does not mention is that most of the large cloud providers are committed to 100% renewables when it comes to their energy usage. E.g. Google has been working on this for ages and most / all (?) of their data centers are running on clean energy. Most of the non sustainable energy consumption happens on the consumer side where most of us are dependent on grids that are also shifting to more s…
I think it's probably important to point out that while Google may purchase 100% of their energy usage from renewable sources, this does not actually mean the datacenters run on renewable sources: https://www.google.com/about/datacenters/renewable/
I bring this up as renewables are currently supplemental and don't replace base load. Hydro storage isn't available/practical for all regions, nuclear has been deemed too expensive, so it's usually natural gas that slots in.
Re: The internet eats up less energy than you might think
#8This article is very light on details. I'm also not sure what the difference between "traditional data centres"and "cloud data centres" is.
It also completely ignores (as does everyone else) the 700lb gorilla in the room - the embedded energy content of all of the computing equipment, from the video camera used to film content, to the networking equipment and data centre servers, to the final device used to consume that content. Manufacturing semiconductors is an incredibly energy-intensive (as well as very resource-intensive) process, and product lifecycles are ever-shortening.
Re: The internet eats up less energy than you might think
#9Something that the article does not mention is that most of the large cloud providers are committed to 100% renewables when it comes to their energy usage. E.g. Google has been working on this for ages and most / all (?) of their data centers are running on clean energy. Most of the non sustainable energy consumption happens on the consumer side where most of us are dependent on grids that are also shifting to more s…
Same for Microsoft, I think they intend to be carbon negative by 2025. And still there's people in the Netherlands complaining that datacentres use up too much of the green energy available in the Netherlands. Truly backwards way of thinking
> Same for Microsoft,
> still there's people in the Netherlands complaining that datacentres use up too much of the green energy available in the Netherlands. Truly backwards way of thinking
Analyzing and critiquing the moves a massive monopoly -capitalist entity is ‘backwards‘? This sounds quite un-nuanced. Could you elaborate more what you mean? As it stands it sounds like a naive accelerationist perspective.
Re: The internet eats up less energy than you might think
#10This article is very light on details. I'm also not sure what the difference between "traditional data centres"and "cloud data centres" is. It also completely ignores (as does everyone else) the 700lb gorilla in the room - the embedded energy content of all of the computing equipment, from the video camera used to film content, to the networking equipment and data centre servers, to the final device used to consume t…
> It also completely ignores (as does everyone else) the 700lb gorilla in the room - the embedded energy content of all of the computing equipment
Yes, I’d love to read more about that. i wonder if anyone here has a link to some research that looks at the full-er picture.