Google Uses More Energy Than a State Capital

Google has revealed that its data centers use about 260 million watts to power the services most of the people on the Internet use every day, from YouTube to Google searches to Gmail. To put it into perspective, that is more power usage than the whole of Salt Lake City, enough energy to power a city of around 100,000 to 200,000 homes.

Google rationalizes using more energy than a state capital because people are saving energy by using their services, as opposed to, for example driving to a movie theater to watch videos or to a library to look things up. Google kind of has a point, in that the whole Internet uses its services fairly regularly, and all joking aside, the Internet is almost vital to the life of a modern day person. Fun fact, it has also been revealed that the average Google user’s energy consumption is akin to a 60-watt lightbulb burning for three hours, or 180 watt-hours a month.

(The New York Times via Gizmodo)

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James Plafke