Dec 10, 2025
3 min read
Digital life offers us instant benefits, but what is the real energy cost behind them?Find out here.
In the era of digital life, distances and times are almost lost.Email, e-mail, video calls, photos and videos on social networks, working with files in the cloud ... Everything works immediately, without thinking about what is behind all these advantages.
This digital age is very heavy: Online activities require a lot of energy.And even though it is not heard in the price of an individual house, the energy price of our connection is on a global scale with unexpected results.
With all the online digital services that come out, the army of servers work tirelessly.The International Energy Agency (IAE) estimates that the world's data centers are already generating between 1.5% and 2% of the world's electricity.A percentage that has only just begun and could double before 2030 if the expansion of the digital world continues at its current pace.Paratactically, if we dig the processes to save physical resources, we need more energy than ever to maintain the intangible.
If the value of bitcoin in dollars increases, the pressure on the network and the energy consumption that supports it also increases, as you might expect.Thousands of computers work on each transaction competing to solve complex algorithms.According to the famous University of Cambridge, the Bitcoin network uses more electricity every year than an entire country, such as Argentina or Finland.It is true that a significant part of this energy comes from renewable sources, but a significant part continues to depend on coal and natural gas.
What you don't see when you surf
Every Google search, every Netflix episode or every Instagram story activates an invisible network of servers, cables, fans and cooling systems with consumption and, therefore, a certain weight on the pollution of the planet.
Today's most popular search engine, Google, maintains more than 20 data centers around the world, where thousands of servers work day and night.Although the company has made progress in using renewable energy, its carbon footprint is too large, especially in places where electricity is still dependent on fossil fuels.
The cloud resides in large ships full of machinery that must be kept cool, often in bright areas, to reduce energy consumption.However, demand continues to grow.The use of increasing, whether to do so, the intelligence of artichence or cryptocurrency, has caused that the power dive to increase levels is difficult to imagine.
Social networks and the cost of care
If there's one thing that never stops growing, it's social networks.Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok or X (formerly Twitter) has billions of daily interactions.Each "like", each comment or video played works as a chain of processing that requires a lot of energy.
The Shift Project Report estimates that online video accounts for over 60% of global data traffic, with YouTube accounting for about 15%.Converted to emissions, we are talking about hundreds of millions of tons of co₂ a year.It all happened with something as simple as sliding the screen.
The problem is that this consumption cannot be seen and separated.It is not reflected in any bill, but in the world level because of its price.Many technology companies began to publish the ability to publish the ability to publish the ability to publish or use them through programs of regulation or purchase of carbon.However, the business model remains constant: the more time we spend connected, the more data is generated, the more advertising is spent and the more energy is wasted.
Attention to the new energy challenge
On the other hand, the intelligent machine has increased the demand for electricity to an unprecedented level.Training an AI model requires colossal computing power
Creation tools multiply this need. For example, Microsoft and OpenAI have created special data centers to support these systems. Although most energy comes from renewable sources, sustainable production does not always coincide with peak consumption, so polluting traditional energy sources have to be resorted to.
The debate is already technical and ethical.The countries that host these facilities receive financial aid, but the emissions and environmental impacts spread throughout the atmosphere.Therefore, many experts are calling for an equitable distribution of the environmental burden caused by digital development.
Can we make our clicks more sustainable?
The good news is that, although this requires deep changes in our habits and industry.On a personal level, small gestures can have a positive impact on a general level: reduce streaming quality when not necessary, delete old files or avoid sending heavy attachments.It is also advisable to choose a technology service dedicated to renewable energy sources and transparent in their environmental reports.
In a corporate environment, efficiency is a necessary concept, Amazon and Meta, with liquid cooling, reuses and uses hydrogen as heat.
The government is responsible for establishing a clear framework.Projects such as the EU's conduct for data centers or the UN's decryption target, where every megawatt is crafable and every byte has a visible environmental cost.
