There has been some debate in the media about the energy used by search engines such as Google when performing a typical search for information. Some commentators have claimed that it is equivalent to half the energy needed to boil a kettle of water and produces 7 grams of carbon dioxide for each search. Google have responded to these claims by releasing some statistics to show that the average search is completed in 0.2 seconds and uses only 1 kilojoule (kJ) of energy. For comparison, the average adult needs about 8000 kJ a day of energy from food, so a Google search uses just about the same amount of energy that your body burns in ten seconds.
In terms of greenhouse gases, one Google search is equivalent to about 0.2 grams of CO2. The current EU standard for car exhaust emissions is 140 grams of CO2 per kilometre driven, but most cars don't reach that level yet. Thus, the average car driven for one kilometre produces as many greenhouse gases as a thousand Google searches.
Nevertheless, search engine providers and data centres use large amounts of electricity and some are now investing in renewable electricity ventures to reduce their overall carbon footprint. Recently Reuters reported that Google’s energy unit had entered into a deal to buy wind power from NextEra Energy Inc in the USA for the next 20 years to power data centres. The deal comes less than three months after Google invested $38.8 million in two wind farms in North Dakota that generate enough energy to power more than 55,000 homes.
As more of these search engines are powered by renewable electricity, internet users around the world can continue to work knowing that the environmental impact of their online activities is reducing.
Comments
Post has no comments.