Archived Content
The following content is from an older version of this website, and may not display correctly.Google's VP of operations refuted a claim that a google search produces 7g of CO2 based on the data center energy needed and that used by a terminal.
Google denied that the carbon generated is anything like 7g saying that a search produced just 0.2g of CO2.
In response, Urs H├Âlzle, Senior Vice President Operations at Google posted a blog saying: "...as computers become a bigger part of more people's lives, information technology consumes an increasing amount of energy, and Google takes this impact seriously. That's why we have designed and built the most energy efficient data centers in the world, which means the energy used per Google search is minimal. In fact, in the time it takes to do a Google search, your own personal computer will use more energy than Google uses to answer your query."
"Recently, though, others have used much higher estimates, claiming that a typical search uses "half the energy as boiling a kettle of water" and produces 7 grams of CO2. We thought it would be helpful to explain why this number is *many* times too high.
Google is fast - a typical search returns results in less than 0.2 seconds. Queries vary in degree of difficulty, but for the average query, the servers it touches each work on it for just a few thousandths of a second. Together with other work performed before your search even starts (such as building the search index) this amounts to 0.0003 kWh of energy per search, or 1 kJ. For comparison, the average adult needs about 8000 kJ a day of energy from food, so a Google search uses just about the same amount of energy that your body burns in ten seconds."
The full blog is here.
Google denied that the carbon generated is anything like 7g saying that a search produced just 0.2g of CO2.
The search company was named by Harvard professor Dr Wissner-Gross who is working on a web site called co2stats.com.
In response, Urs H├Âlzle, Senior Vice President Operations at Google posted a blog saying: "...as computers become a bigger part of more people's lives, information technology consumes an increasing amount of energy, and Google takes this impact seriously. That's why we have designed and built the most energy efficient data centers in the world, which means the energy used per Google search is minimal. In fact, in the time it takes to do a Google search, your own personal computer will use more energy than Google uses to answer your query."
"Recently, though, others have used much higher estimates, claiming that a typical search uses "half the energy as boiling a kettle of water" and produces 7 grams of CO2. We thought it would be helpful to explain why this number is *many* times too high.
Google is fast - a typical search returns results in less than 0.2 seconds. Queries vary in degree of difficulty, but for the average query, the servers it touches each work on it for just a few thousandths of a second. Together with other work performed before your search even starts (such as building the search index) this amounts to 0.0003 kWh of energy per search, or 1 kJ. For comparison, the average adult needs about 8000 kJ a day of energy from food, so a Google search uses just about the same amount of energy that your body burns in ten seconds."
Google is on the record as saying that its data centers are the world's most energy efficient and the company last year calculated an average PUE figure of 1.21 for six of its large facilities.
The full blog is here.