How much energy does it take to run a tech company? As of 2022, about 24 terawatt-hours (TWh), if you’re Microsoft Corp or Alphabet Inc's Google.
That might not sound like much, but the entire country of Iceland (population 382,000) uses just 19 TWh.
The difference of 5 TWh is the equivalent of just under 3 million barrels of oil in energy, to put that in perspective.
Since a barrel of oil is currently valued between US$78.83 and US$81.12 each, tech giants are consuming about US$240 million more in energy per year than a country of almost 400,000 people.
Tech giants pledge to be carbon-free by 2030
Both Google and Microsoft have committed to operating on 100%, 24/7 carbon-free energy by 2030.
Given the companies’ outsized impact on global energy demand, that goal becomes vital, rather than just a positive step in the right direction.
Tracking energy sources for multi-national companies is difficult at best, but Google claims it reached 64% carbon-free energy globally in 2022 on an hourly basis.
Microsoft is fairly upfront with its progress, releasing an annual sustainability report breaking down the company’s efforts and results.
This year, Microsoft’s Scope 1-3 emissions rose 29.1% from its baseline in 2020, rising in line with increased energy costs from its new Artificial Intelligence (AI) data centres, semiconductors and servers.
Similarly, Google admitted in July that its emissions had jumped 48% from its 2019 baseline, even as the International Energy Agency predicts energy demand could double by 2026 because of the rapid growth in data centres.
The search engine giant insists it is still operating on a global average of 64% carbon-free energy and has asked its largest manufacturing suppliers to commit to a 100% renewable energy match by 2029.