Much has been made of a recent study suggesting ChatGPT operations consume prodigious amounts of electricity, as exemplified by the claim that ChatGPT operations consume 17,000 times more energy than a typical household.
No question, cloud computing requires remote data centers, and data centers are big consumers of energy. In the United States, data centers now account for about four per cent of electricity consumption, and that figure is expected to climb to six per cent by 2026, according to reporting by The New Yorker.
But that is not the whole story. Data centers, apps and cloud computing are used to design, manufacture and use all sorts of products that might also decrease energy consumption. Some would argue, for example, that there is a net energy reduction when people use ridesharing instead of driving their personal vehicles.
Study Title | Location | Key Findings |
Life Cycle Energy Consumption of Ride-hailing Services: A Case Study of Taxi and Ride-Hailing Trips in California (2020) | California, USA | - Ridesharing resulted in 11-23% lower energy consumption compared to private vehicles, primarily due to higher vehicle occupancy. |
The Energy and Environmental Impacts of Shared Autonomous Vehicles Under Different Pricing Strategies (2023) | N/A (Hypothetical Scenario) | - Shared Autonomous Vehicles (SAVs) with high occupancy rates have the potential for significant energy savings compared to private vehicles. |
Future Transportation: The Social, Economic, and Environmental Impacts of Ridesourcing Services: A Literature Review (2022) | N/A (Literature Review) | - Ridesharing can potentially reduce vehicle miles traveled (VMT) compared to private vehicles, leading to lower energy consumption. - However, concerns exist regarding: * Increased empty miles driven by rideshare vehicles searching for passengers. * Potential substitution of public transportation trips with ridesharing, negating some environmental benefits. |
Life-Cycle Energy Assessment of Personal Mobility in China (2020) | China | Ridesharing with three passengers can reduce energy consumption. |
The Energy and Environmental Impacts of Shared Autonomous Vehicles (2021) | N/A | Shared autonomous vehicles can reduce energy consumption. |
Empty Urban Mobility: Exploring the Energy Efficiency of Ridesharing and Microtransit (2019) | Europe | High-occupancy ridesharing reduces energy consumption, compared to use of private vehicles, but we also must account for energy consumed when not transporting passengers. |
So far as I can determine, nobody has really tried to model the net energy impact of generative artificial intelligence, data centers or cloud computing, where the energy footprint of GenAI, data centers or cloud computing is compared with the possible net reductions throughout an economy if the app outputs are used to reduce energy consumption in products using cloud computing, data center and GenAI outputs.
Study Title | Key Findings |
Green Cloud? An Empirical Analysis of Cloud Computing and Energy Efficiency (2020) | Cloud computing adoption improves user-side energy efficiency, particularly after 2006. - SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) contributes most significantly to both electric and non-electric energy savings. IaaS (Infrastructure-as-a-Service) primarily benefits industries with high internal IT hardware usage. |
The Internet: Explaining ICT Service Demand in Light of Cloud Computing Technologies (2015) | Cloud computing can lead to increased energy consumption in data centers. Potential for energy savings in other sectors due to: * Reduced need for personal computing devices. Improved resource utilization and consolidation. |
Decarbonizing the Cloud: How Cloud Computing Can Enable a Sustainable Future (McKinsey & Company, 2020) | Cloud adoption powered by renewables can significantly reduce emissions compared to on-premise IT infrastructure. Cloud enables the development of various sustainability solutions (smart grids, remote work). |
Cloud Computing: Lowering the Carbon Footprint of Manufacturing SMEs? (2013) | Case studies of manufacturing SMEs shifting to cloud-based solutions. |
But some related research suggests ways of looking at net energy footprint.
Industry | Cloud-based Solution | Potential Fuel Savings | Source |
Trucking | Route optimization with real-time traffic data | Up to 10% | DoT |
Railroad | Predictive maintenance for locomotives | 5-10% | Wabtec |
Shipping | Optimized container loading and route planning | 5-15% | Massey Ferguson |
The point is that “net” impact is what we are after.
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