The Internet uses more power than the auto industry. Microsoft and Google are trying to cut the carbon output of their server farms by investing in alternative energy. How about a data center powered by a fuel cell running on waste methane?
Tue, Nov 20 2012 at 10:06 PM EST
ENERGY HOG: Attention all power plants! Server at work. (Flickr/Waleed Alzuhair)Server farms use a lot of energy. How much, exactly? According to CNN, more than the entire auto industry does in producing cars and trucks. If the Internet were a country, it would be in fifth place for using energy and producing greenhouse gas.
Now some big server users are trying to turn their amp-guzzling ships around. Study that energy flow at left, and we'll get to it in a minute. Google says it wants to be zero emission, which is quite a feat considering that the company emitted 1.5 million tons of carbon dioxide in 2010 (the most recent year available). According to Fortune, Google’s 30,000 employs have a collective carbon footprint equal to that of the entire city of Fargo, North Dakota (with more than 200,000 happy residents).