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Report | Data Centres and Data Transmission Networks

Name company:
IEA
Source:
www.iea.org/reports/data-centres-and-data-transmission-networks
Type:
Report
IEA

Source: IEA

In this report

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.

Rapid improvements in energy efficiency have, however, helped limit energy demand growth from data centres and data transmission networks, which each account for ~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.