Google Releases its Energy Consumption Numbers, Revealing a 260 Million Watt Continuous Suck
After years of playing such numbers extremely close to the vest, Google today released figures spelling out exactly how much electricity the company's massive computing resources consume. Its data centers continuously draw 260 million watts--roughly a quarter the output of a nuclear power plant, says the NYT--to keep services like Gmail, search, Google Ads, and YouTube up and running around the clock and around the globe. How does that translate? Google also estimated that its total carbon emissions for 2010 were just below 1.5 million metric tons. Not all of Google's electricity comes from carbon resources--a quarter comes from renewable fuels like wind, thanks to some deals the company has made with utilities--but that's still some decent tonnage. Related ArticlesA Look Inside the Data Centers of "The Cloud"Liquid Cooling Bags For Data Centers Could Trim Cost and Carbon By 90 PercentMeasuring Carbon FootprintsTagsScience, Clay Dillow, carbon footprint, energy, environment, google, power consumptionStill,...