Re: Has anyone looked into using the power model presented in this paper to for estimating co2 emissions for data transfer?

Great article. Thanks for sharing it, Chris.

One important point that the article makes is this:
"If a static kWh/GB is applied to estimate future electricity consumption
based on expected exponential data volume increase, any embedded error will
also be exponentially extrapolated."

This is exactly what we're seeing with the update between SWDv3 and SWDv4
<https://www.thegreenwebfoundation.org/news/understanding-the-latest-sustainable-web-design-model-update/>,
where estimated emissions are now ~60% lower in the new model. As the model
assumes a linear relationship between energy use and data transfer,
estimated emissions will continue to fall with each model revision as the
continued exponential growth in data transfer is decorrelated from energy
consumption.

Coalescing around a new model that is correlated with energy use/GHG
emissions would be really beneficial.
Cheers,
Owen.

On Mon, Jul 8, 2024 at 8:20 AM Chris Adams <chris@thegreenwebfoundation.org>
wrote:

> Hi folks,
>
> An interesting paper was published late last month that proposed a new way
> to talk about the environmental impact of data transfer.
>
> It’s called *Network energy use not directly proportional to data volume:
> The power model approach for more reliable network energy consumption
> calculations, *and is published as an open access paper at the link below
>
> https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jiec.13512
>
> Here’s the abstract:
>
> > It is commonly assumed that data volume and network energy consumption
> are directly proportional, a notion perpetuated by numerous studies and
> media coverage. This paper challenges this assumption, offering a
> comprehensive examination of network operations to explain why the
> relationship between energy consumption and data volume is nonlinear. The
> power model approach is explored as an alternative methodology for
> calculating network energy consumption providing a more reliable
> representation of network energy use. The power model demonstrates that
> simple energy intensity calculations, expressed as kilowatt hours per
> gigabyte of data, are insufficient for accurately estimating real-world
> network energy consumption.
>
> The lead author David Mytton, also writes a more accessible summary on his
> Substack, and he’s been working on it since 2022.
>
> https://www.devsustainability.com/p/network-energy-use-not-directly-proportional
>
> I've created an issue for anyone who fancies thinking through how it might
> be implemented below:
> https://github.com/thegreenwebfoundation/co2.js/issues/218
>
> If you have looked into it, and how you might turn it into a model you
> would use in a some software, I’d be interested in hearing about it, as I
> think this is novel, interesting, and welcome work.
>
> At the same time, it’s not as familiar and easy to use as the SWD model we
> have as a default inside CO2.js, the library we maintain at the Green Web
> Foundation, so I think the discussion would be welcome - especially if it
> helps us develop better mental models for thinking about digital
> sustainability.
>
> Thanks!
>
>
> Chris Adams
>
> Executive Director
>
> w: thegreenwebfoundation.org
> e: chris@greenweb.org
> t: @mrchrisadams
>
> German Office
> Naunynstrasse 40
> 10999 Berlin
> Germany
>
> See our contact page for more details
> https://www.thegreenwebfoundation.org/contact/
>
> Book a short call with me to discuss something.
> https://cal.com/mrchrisadams
>
>