Energy use in the information technology sector is increasing rapidly, presenting an opportunity as well as a challenge to the overall growth in energy demand.

Growing Sector Provides Potential

The information and communications technology (ICT) sector accounts for an increasing demand for energy, while also offering promising solutions to the overall increase in energy use.

On the one hand, energy-intensive computing and Internet communications are quickly becoming the fastest growing energy-use sector. According to a 2011 Stanford University/New York Times study, data centers comprised 2 percent of U.S. electricity consumption in 2010 — a 250 percent jump since 2000 — and increasing adoption of home electronics including computers, smartphones, digital cable set-top boxes and video game consoles are driving up domestic energy usage at the same time. However, that same study points out that data center energy consumption growth has grown slower than predicted due to increasing use of cloud computing and desktop virtualization, reducing the need for businesses to maintain their own in-house data centers and allowing them to utilize lower-power computers like thin clients or laptops.

The ICT sector also creates energy-saving opportunities by reducing freight and travel, automating building systems and technologies, optimizing utility distribution, and making smart-grid technologies possible.

Making sure that ICT equipment — from the largest data centers down to your mobile phone — run more efficiently is critically important to managing the world's energy use. But innovative applications of this technology can also drastically reduce the energy use of other sectors.