Megan Hall: Welcome to Possibly, where we take on huge problems like the future of our planet and break them down into small questions with unexpected answers. I’m Megan Hall.

These days, I can log on to my phone and pull up a file that’s stored thousands of miles away. It’s pretty awesome. But does access to all of this remote data use a lot of energy?

We had reporters Yune Jee Bang and Ashley Junger from our Possibly team look into this question. Welcome, Yune Jee and Ashley!

Yune Jee Bang: Hi Megan!

Ashley Junger: Hello!

Megan Hall: So, does it waste energy to have access to lots of data and files on the cloud whenever I need them? 

Yune Jee Bang: Well let’s back up for a second. In traditional computing, information is stored on hard drives. Local computers manage, process, and communicate information.

Ashley Junger: But with the invention of remote data storage, all of this can happen at huge data centers.

Megan Hall: Hmm, that’s pretty abstract. What does that actually look like?

Yune Jee Bang: To find out, we talked to:

Jimmy Chu: Jimmy Chu, Professor of Engineering, professor of physics at the Brown University.

Ashley Junger: He says: 

Jimmy Chu: Think of a building of the size of the Providence mall with the very few windows and racks for computers.

Yune Jee Bang: As of 2021, there were nearly 8,000 data centers around the world, and the U.S. is home to about 33% of them.

Ashley Junger: Traditional data storage, for comparison, could come from the hardware under your office desk.

Megan Hall: So, how much energy do we use on cloud computing??

Ashley Junger: Well, in 2014, cloud computing and data centers were responsible for an estimated 1.8% of all U.S. electricity consumption. 

Megan Hall: That doesn’t sound so bad. 

Yune Jee Bang: To put it in perspective, that’s equivalent to the carbon dioxide emissions from more than 4 hundred thousand tanker trucks full of gasoline.

Megan Hall: Ok, so, that’s something. If I want to reduce my emissions, should I stick with traditional storage and computing?

Ashley Junger: Well, even though it takes a fair amount of energy to store things in the cloud, it’s a lot less than if we were storing that data traditionally.

Megan Hall: Why is that?

Yune Jee Bang: Jimmy says, traditional data storage is great when you’re actively using it, But after that, 

Jimmy Chu: When you close the laptop or put it in your backpack, then now the capacity is just sitting there. Unused. Cloud computing was the solution to such a kind of spare capacity problem. 

Yune Jee Bang: The great thing about cloud computing is, computing capacity never just sits there unused. If you don’t need it, someone else, somewhere else in the world will use it. 

Ashley Junger: Remote data centers are also well-designed from the get-go. Jimmy says, a data center is built for efficiency:

Jimmy Chu: For example. Google has a data center in Finland, because it’s colder, and they can manage the heat better without using cooling fans and air conditioning.

Yune Jee Bang: The equipment is also updated more frequently, taking advantage of new, energy-efficient technology. Which means those data centers need less energy and emit fewer greenhouse gas emissions. 

Ashley Junger: So, cloud computing actually cuts down on the climate impact of data storage. If recent  increases in cloud computing continue, we could prevent about 630 million metric tons of CO2 from entering the atmosphere by 2024.

Megan Hall: Woah! That’s a huge difference! So storing my data in the cloud is actually better than using my harddrive? 

Ashley Junger: Yes!  And as more of our lives move online, the efficiency of cloud computing will make an even bigger dent in our carbon emissions.

Yune Jee Bang: In short – cloud computing makes our computer use more efficient. So feel free to use Google Drive, iCloud, dropbox…. and any other cloud storage option in place of hard drives and traditional storage!

Megan Hall: That’s it for today. For more information, or to ask a question about the way your choices affect our planet, go to the public’s radio dot org slash possibly. Or subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts. 

Or follow us on Twitter and Facebook at “ask possibly.”

Possibly is a co-production of the Institute at Brown for Environment and Society, Brown’s Climate Solutions Initiative, and the Public’s Radio.

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