IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/inecol/v17y2013i5p680-688.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Direct Energy Demand of Internet Data Flows

Author

Listed:
  • Vlad C. Coroama
  • Lorenz M. Hilty
  • Ernst Heiri
  • Frank M. Horn

Abstract

The direct energy demand of Internet data flows can be assessed using a variety of methodological approaches (top‐down, bottom‐up, or hybrid/model based) and different definitions of system boundaries. Because of this diversity, results reported in the literature differ by up to two orders of magnitude and are difficult to compare. We present a first assessment that uses a pure bottom‐up approach and a system boundary that includes only transmission equipment. The assessment is based on the case study of a 40 megabit per second videoconferencing transmission between Switzerland and Japan, yielding a consumption of 0.2 kilowatt‐hours per transmitted gigabyte for 2009, a result that supports the lowest of the existing estimates. We discuss the practical implications of our findings.

Suggested Citation

  • Vlad C. Coroama & Lorenz M. Hilty & Ernst Heiri & Frank M. Horn, 2013. "The Direct Energy Demand of Internet Data Flows," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 17(5), pages 680-688, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:inecol:v:17:y:2013:i:5:p:680-688
    DOI: 10.1111/jiec.12048
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/jiec.12048
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/jiec.12048?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Tova Billstein & Anna Björklund & Tomas Rydberg, 2021. "Life Cycle Assessment of Network Traffic: A Review of Challenges and Possible Solutions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(20), pages 1-12, October.
    2. Elheddad, Mohamed & Benjasak, Chonlakan & Deljavan, Rana & Alharthi, Majed & Almabrok, Jaballa M., 2021. "The effect of the Fourth Industrial Revolution on the environment: The relationship between electronic finance and pollution in OECD countries," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 163(C).
    3. Zafar, Muhammad Wasif & Zaidi, Syed Anees Haider & Mansoor, Sadia & Sinha, Avik & Qin, Quande, 2022. "ICT and education as determinants of environmental quality: The role of financial development in selected Asian countries," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 177(C).
    4. Hanna Pihkola & Mikko Hongisto & Olli Apilo & Mika Lasanen, 2018. "Evaluating the Energy Consumption of Mobile Data Transfer—From Technology Development to Consumer Behaviour and Life Cycle Thinking," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(7), pages 1-16, July.
    5. Daria Gritsenko & Jon Aaen & Bent Flyvbjerg, 2024. "Rethinking Digitalization and Climate: Don't Predict, Mitigate," Papers 2407.15016, arXiv.org.
    6. Salahuddin, Mohammad & Alam, Khorshed & Ozturk, Ilhan, 2016. "The effects of Internet usage and economic growth on CO2 emissions in OECD countries: A panel investigation," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 1226-1235.
    7. Robert Istrate & Victor Tulus & Robert N. Grass & Laurent Vanbever & Wendelin J. Stark & Gonzalo Guillén-Gosálbez, 2024. "The environmental sustainability of digital content consumption," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-11, December.
    8. Wen-Cheng Lu, 2018. "The impacts of information and communication technology, energy consumption, financial development, and economic growth on carbon dioxide emissions in 12 Asian countries," Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, Springer, vol. 23(8), pages 1351-1365, December.
    9. Antonio Cavallin Toscani & Atalay Atasu & Luk N. Van Wassenhove & Andrea Vinelli, 2023. "Life cycle assessment of in‐person, virtual, and hybrid academic conferences: New evidence and perspectives," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 27(6), pages 1461-1475, December.
    10. Roland Hischier, 2018. "Car vs. Packaging—A First, Simple (Environmental) Sustainability Assessment of Our Changing Shopping Behaviour," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(9), pages 1-12, August.
    11. Yunsun Kim & Sahm Kim, 2021. "Electricity Load and Internet Traffic Forecasting Using Vector Autoregressive Models," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 9(18), pages 1-15, September.
    12. Anders S. G. Andrae & Tomas Edler, 2015. "On Global Electricity Usage of Communication Technology: Trends to 2030," Challenges, MDPI, vol. 6(1), pages 1-41, April.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:inecol:v:17:y:2013:i:5:p:680-688. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=1088-1980 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.