Tracking report
Data Centres and Data Transmission Networks
Data centres & networks
As the world becomes increasingly digitalised, data centres and data transmission networks are emerging as an important source of energy demand.
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Most of the world’s Internet Protocol (IP) traffic goes through data centres. Greater connectivity is therefore propelling demand for data centre services and energy use (mostly electricity), with multiplying effects: for every bit of data that travels the network from data centres to end users, another five bits of data are transmitted within and among data centres.
Rapid improvements in energy efficiency have, however, helped limit energy demand growth from data centres and data transmission networks, which each account for about 1% of global electricity use. Nevertheless, strong government and industry efforts on energy efficiency, renewables procurement and RD&D will be essential to curb energy demand and emissions growth over the next decade.
Rapid improvements in energy efficiency have, however, helped limit energy demand growth from data centres and data transmission networks, which each account for about 1% of global electricity use. Nevertheless, strong government and industry efforts on energy efficiency, renewables procurement and RD&D will be essential to curb energy demand and emissions growth over the next decade.
Last updated Jan 7, 2022
Key findings
Global trends in internet traffic, data centres workloads and data centre energy use, 2010-2020
OpenHuge strides in energy efficiency have helped limit electricity demand growth from data centres and data transmission networks
Global internet traffic surged by more than 40% in 2020 as a result of increased video streaming, video conferencing, online gaming and social networking. This growth comes on top of rising demand for digital services over the past decade: since 2010, the number of internet users worldwide has doubled, while global internet traffic has expanded 15-fold. Global data centre electricity use in 2020 was 200-250 TWh, or around 1% of global final electricity demand, and data transmission networks consumed 260-340 TWh in 2020, or 1.1‑1.4% of global electricity use.
Despite exponential growth in demand for these services, rapid improvements in energy efficiency have helped to limit electricity demand growth. Sustained efforts by the ICT industry to improve energy efficiency, as well as government policies to promote best practices, will be essential to curb energy demand and emissions growth over the next decade.
Data Centres and Data Transmission Networks: Tracking progress 2021
