
Is the time now for a big switch-off?
Datacentres represent a growing share of global power consumption and emissions. An average user PC consumes 1.3 kWh of electricity every three hours, without even going online; transmitting a million static webpage requests per second has been estimated at another 11.610 kilowatts per hour (kWh) – or enough to power 13 US households for a month.
According to Peter Hewkin, founder of UK edge computing company Smart Edge Data Centres (SEDC), many countries at peak times are already facing limited capacity, with the next wave of data-hungry digital growth on the way. But he also estimates that at least