The internet: a lurking energy guzzler that is threatening to bankrupt the planet. As the world becomes more dependent on the online sphere, the internet’s insatiable hunger for energy continues to skyrocket, posing a grave danger to the environment. Shocking new research from the Natural Resource Defence Council (NRDC) reveals that the internet’s energy consumption has tripled over the last decade, leaving data centres responsible for a staggering 2% of the world’s electricity usage (equivalent to over 400 TWh per year) – equivalent to that of the entire United Kingdom.

The internet’s energy consumption is driven by the growing number of internet users, the proliferation of internet-connected devices, and the demand for data-intensive applications such as video streaming, cloud computing, and social media. According to estimates by the International Energy Agency (IEA), the internet’s energy consumption has tripled over the last decade and is expected to continue to grow at an alarming rate. In fact, the IEA predicts that by 2030, the internet will consume 20% of the world’s electricity supply. Most of the internet’s energy consumption is attributed to data centres, which are the backbone of the internet. Data centres are large facilities that house computer servers, network equipment, and storage systems that store and process vast amounts of data.

Data centres are not the only culprit when it comes to the internet’s energy consumption. Every time we use the internet, we consume energy. Every email we send, every website we visit, and every video we stream requires energy to transmit and process data. The energy consumption of these activities may seem insignificant on an individual basis, but when multiplied by the billions of internet users worldwide, the cumulative effect is significant.

What Are We Doing?

So, what are we at Solution Loans doing to minimize our carbon footprint? These are some practical steps we’ve taken to make sure that when you visit www.solution-loans.co.uk you can be certain that you’re having a minimum impact on the environment and minimising energy consumption and carbon emissions:

1. We optimise our website performance – we strive to make each page as small as we can (measured in kilobytes) so that it can be delivered easily. We compress images and code and we use caching and content delivery networks (CDN) to reduce the load on our servers. This has the added benefit of delivering our content more quickly to you so you’re not forced to twiddle your thumbs while waiting.
2. We use a green web hosting provider – our UK-based host uses renewable energy (i.e. wind, solar, hydro) to power their data centre rather than electricity generated by burning fossil fuels such as coal, or gas.

What We Have Achieved

The results of our efforts have been dramatic:

• Websitecarbon.com calculates that www.solution-loans.co.uk is in the top 11% of the cleanest websites. Each time someone visits our website only 0.11g of CO2 is produced. But we’re not complacent as over a year our site still consumes enough energy to power an electric car the equivalent of 140 miles. Where we can do more we will.
• Ecograder.com reports that our website scores 99 out of 100.

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