The following is a guest post by Jakub Ondrasek, CEO at Clore AI.
Tech innovations such as AI, cryptocurrency, quantum computing and VR are redefining modern life. Most consumers don’t know how much high-performance computing power is needed to fuel such changes. This computing power is driving major breakthroughs, but it also contributes to one of the world’s most pressing problems: unsustainable energy use.
A recent report from The International Energy Agency (IEA) warns that the electricity consumption of data centers is set to double by 2026. Meanwhile, out of the $1 trillion spent on hardware in the IT industry every year, it’s been estimated that around 50% of computing power is sitting idle.
Wasting so much computational power whilst pursuing increasingly expansive frontiers is a paradox. How, when breakthroughs come thicker and faster than ever, can these powerful resources be allowed to lie dormant? If tech industries are genuinely as serious about sustainability as they are about innovation, the answer is: they can’t.
The Environmental Toll of Idle Hardware
The environmental burden of unused computing power weighs heavy. Idle resources can be considered a prime culprit amidst tech’s continuous battle to curb its carbon footprint. Manufacturing GPUs, CPUs, and other high-performance hardware relies on mining rare elements. Moreover, when this hardware grows outdated or goes unused, it generates critical levels of e-waste.
Every unused GPU, server, or data center still consumes electricity to maintain operational readiness. This results in freeflowing carbon emissions that offer no real tangible return. As the world continues to grapple with a climate crisis, that is extremely difficult to justify.
It’s imperative, therefore, to apply productive solutions that transform the inefficiencies within existing infrastructures. Thankfully, decentralized approaches offer huge opportunities to combat these inefficiencies and minimize their environmental toll.
