<nettime> Viridian Note 00116: Internet Energy 2

[bruces@well.com (Bruce Sterling)]

Key concepts: Internet energy consumption, growth rates,
carbon consumption, new economy

Attention Conservation Notice:  It's lots of handwaving 
and back-of-the-envelope calculations about Internet 
energy consumption.  Part 2 of 3.

Link: http://enduse.lbl.gov/Projects/InfoTech.html

From: Jonathan Koomey <jgkoomey@lbl.gov>
Organization: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Subject: Electricity directly used by the Internet:  New 
analysis

"Dear Colleagues,

"There has a been much discussion recently about the 
electricity consumption associated with the Internet. 
Mark  Mills claimed in an article in Forbes 
(http://forbes.com/forbes/99/0531/6311070a.htm)
and in a supporting report (Mills 1999, at 
http://www.fossilfuels.org/Electric/internet.htm), that 
such electricity use currently accounts for about 8% of 
all electricity use in the U.S."

(((If the Greening Earth Society had just kept their 
mouths shut about this, instead of crazily boasting that 
the Internet guarantees full employment in coal mines, 
nobody would have raised the question.  Now actual 
scientists are addressing this issue, and their answer 
must be rather disconcerting for the carbon lobby.)))

     "We examined the assumptions behind Mills' 
calculations of current electricity use in detail. Even if 
one accepts the validity of calculating electricity 
consumption 'associated with the internet' in isolation, 
the estimates for direct electricity use in Mills' report 
are too large by a factor of eight. 

    "You can download our analysis and supporting 
documents at"
http://enduse.lbl.gov/Projects/InfoTech.html

Jonathan G. Koomey, Ph.D.
Staff Scientist, End-use Forecasting Group
E.O. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
1 Cyclotron Road, Building 90-4000
Berkeley, CA 94720
JGKoomey@lbl.gov,  http://enduse.lbl.gov

(((Some highlights of the analysis follow.)))

  "Scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory 
(LBNL) examined the Forbes numbers(...). Large errors were 
found in every category, including the calculations for 
energy used by major dot-com companies, Web servers, 
Internet routers, telephone switches and the PCs used in 
both homes and business.
 
    "Worse, the Forbes authors also have their basic 
energy facts wrong. They said a 'typical computer and its 
peripherals require about 1,000 watts of power.' In fact, 
the average PC and monitor use about 150 watts of power, 
which dips to 50 watts or less in sleep mode. New flat 
screens use about a quarter of the energy of traditional 
video display terminals with cathode ray tubes. Printers 
and peripherals are usually shared by multiple users, and 
don't increase this average very much. Laptops, a key 
growth segment, are particularly low energy users; newer 
models sometimes use less than 30 watts."

    (((I don't have to be as charitable as scientists do, 
so let me bluntly declare that that Forbes article was 
planted from the get-go by Greening Earth Society.  It's a 
pack of self-serving lies, intended to be cited again and 
again by anti-Kyoto Congressional aides in search of 
"facts."  The authors and their sponsors are not merely 
"wrong," they are fanatical political operatives and they 
are deliberately obscurantist.)))

O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O
NOT ONLY ARE THEY CHOKING US:  THEY LIE ABOUT IT
O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O


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