Thomas says most, if not all, of Google's estimated three-dozen data centers worldwide draw power from hydroelectric or nuclear plants--not coal-driven generators--making Google's day-to-day operations relatively carbon neutral. But the search giant's electricity usage is another story:
We're talking huge amounts of electrical power. Some estimates put Google data center power usage at 50 megawatts per data center. At the end of a year, that's 432 million kilowatt-hours of energy used, per data center. For 36 data centers, we're talking a grand total of around 15 billion kWh per year. That's roughly twice the amount of electricity consumed by all U.S. government data centers put together [ref].
And not only that, the 15 billion kWh per year figure places Google No. 75 in the ">list of the top 215 electricity-consuming nations, well ahead of Nigeria (14.5), Ecuador (10.6), Qatar (9.1) and Iceland (8.6).
And you thought your electrical bill was high.
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