Some have contended that information technology consumes 13% of U.S. electricity and will grow to 50% in 10 years.
Koomey contends “that the Huber and Mills estimates of power used by the Internet are at least eight times too high and their estimates of total power use by office equipment is overstated by at least a power of four.” Specifically, Koomey reports that the Internet consumes only 1% of US electricity not 8% and office equipment only 3% not 13%.
An administrator of the Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration, Jay Hakes, who pointed out that growth in US electricity demand has slowed since the Internet boom.
In his 2000 testimony, he reported that “from 1985 to 1995, retail electricity sales grew at the rate of 2.6% per year. However, during the period 1995 to 1999, retail electricity sales have grown by 2.1% per year. (p. 44)
In examining this negative correlation, Romm concludes that Internet use has not led to an increase in demand for electricity, but instead has led to energy efficiencies that have “resulted in the biggest dropped in electricity intensity and energy intensity the nation has seen in decades. (p. 44)