Burning Watts: The Hidden Cost of Googling
·129 words·1 min
According to Google, the energy it takes to conduct 100 searches on its site is equivalent to a 60-watt light bulb burning for 28 minutes.
“Specifically, we currently use about 0.0003 kWh of energy to answer the average search query,” Google said. “This translates into roughly 0.2g of carbon dioxide.”
Streaming one minute of YouTube, meanwhile, eats up 0.0002 kilowatt hours and generates 0.1 grams of carbon dioxide. That’s about the same amount of energy that your body burns in eight seconds.
Each Gmail user also uses 2.2 kilowatt hours each year and generates 1.2 kilograms of carbon dioxide. That, Google said, is “less than the energy it takes to drink a bottle of wine, stuff a message in the bottle, and toss it in the ocean.”