Data centres and Networks consumed 500 TWh of electricity in 2020 - about 2.5% of global electricity demand
Driven by demand during the Covid-19 pandemic, including for video streaming, video conferencing, online gaming, and social networking, global internet traffic surged by more than 40 per cent in 2020, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).
Data centres consumed around 200 to 250 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity in 2020, or about 1 per cent of global electricity demand, according to IEA. They contributed 0.3 per cent of all global carbon dioxide emissions in 2020. Cryptocurrency mining, which relies heavily on data centres, separately consumed 100 TWh.
In addition, data transmission networks like 4G and 5G mobile networks, are also a power-hungry technology which consumed 260 to 340 TWh of electricity globally in 2020, or 1.1 to 1.4 per cent of global electricity consumption.
Without intervention, carbon emissions can only be expected to get worse, given the exponential growth of data and computing power for applications and emerging technologies like blockchain, machine learning, 5G and virtual reality.
What is the state of data centres in China?
China is also home to the world’s largest 5G network and the world’s second biggest data-centre industry after the US in 2020. It considers digital infrastructure as a top priority for boosting employment and economic growth.
China had about 74,000 data centres in 2019, accounting for roughly 23 per cent of the global total, according to an April report published by Greenpeace, an environmental activist group.
China’s digital infrastructure sector is expected to consume 782 billion kWh of electricity by 2035, according to Greenpeace. That is about 5 to 7 per cent of national power consumption, compared with 2.7 per cent in 2020.