Our new article published today in Joule: “Does not compute: Avoiding pitfalls in assessing the Internet's energy and carbon impacts”
I and Professor Eric Masanet of UC Santa Barbara have a new commentary article out today in the refereed journal Joule. It explores four common pitfalls that cause researchers and commentators to exaggerate information technology electricity use and emissions, and suggests four ways industry and researchers can avoid spreading such misconceptions in the future.
It’s a short article, so I won’t spoil it by giving too much away, but the figure above summarizes one key lesson from our review: Growth in data traffic in either the short term or the long term does not necessarily imply growth in energy use. It depends on how fast efficiency improves!
I summarize the conclusions in my June 1, 2021 keynote for the iTherm conference:
Here’s the reference:
Koomey, Jonathan, and Eric Masanet. 2021. “Does not compute: Avoiding pitfalls in assessing the Internet’s energy and carbon impacts.” Joule. June 24. [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joule.2021.05.007]
