Cloud and wireless to drastically impact on power consumption: Australian report
Although not specifically mentioned in the below article, the rollout of the smart grid, smart meters and smart wi-fi enabled home appliances are also a significant part of the energy inefficiency problem. The Australian Green’s energy policy includes supporting the introduction of smart meters as a way of conserving energy. Not necessarily so, according to the new report from Melbourne”s Centre for Energy Efficient Telecommunications. To quote:
“It”s the modern way but wireless is an energy monster, it”s just inherently inefficient.”
Don
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From the Business Spectator
Cloud and wireless services as set to have a drastic toll on overall energy consumption, with the tech industry vastly underestimating this surge in power use, according to a new study by Melbourne”s Centre for Energy Efficient Telecommunications (CEET).
The report “” titled The Power of Wireless Cloud – says that between 2012 to 2015 the energy use required to power the cloud and wireless networks will grow up to 460 per cent – the equivalent of putting 4.9 million new cars on the road.
While telecommunication accounts for just 2 per cent of the world”s power consumption, CEET forecast that at the current rate of wireless technology adoption that figure could increase to 10 per cent by 2020 if the issue is ignored.
“The problem is that we”re all accessing cloud services “” things like webmail, social networking and virtual applications “” over wireless networks,” CEET deputy director and principal research fellow Dr Kerry Hinton said.
“It”s the modern way but wireless is an energy monster, it”s just inherently inefficient.”
“Our calculations show that, in 2015, the wireless networks we use to access cloud services will command around 90 per cent of the energy needed to power the entire wireless cloud services ecosystem.”
“By comparison, data centres will account for only 9 per cent or less. Industry needs to focus on the real issues with wireless network technologies if it wants to solve this problem.”
Dr Hinton said that the report will provide a starting point for a solution to this problem, adding that it”s unlikely the world will throw away their devices as a result of their finding.
“We”ll need a radical improvement in the efficiency of the technologies themselves and potentially a fundamental change to the way data is managed across the global network. These are the things we”re investigating at CEET.”
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Read the full CEET report here