Experts urge limited Internet consumption

SAN FRANCISCO, May 3 (UPI) -- Experts ranging from U.S. scientists to Internet industry executives say energy consumption from online activities must be limited.

Subodh Bapat, vice president of the Web server manufacturer Sun Microsystems, said the ever-expanding growth of the Internet and its offerings has resulted in significant energy use that must be restricted, The Guardian reported Sunday.

"In an energy-constrained world, we cannot continue to grow the footprint of the Internet … . We need to rein in the energy consumption," Bapat said.

"We need more data centers, we need more servers. Each server burns more watts than the previous generation and each watt costs more. If you compound all of these trends, you have the perfect storm."

Scientists have estimated the Internet's energy footprint is growing by more than 10 percent a year as a result of more than 1.5 billion online visitors worldwide.

"Efficiency is being more than overwhelmed by continued growth and demand for new services," Rich Brown, a Lawrence Berkeley National Lab energy analyst, told the British newspaper. "It's a common story … technical improvements are often taken back by increased demand."