Lukas Mezger <lukas.mezger(a)gmail.com> wrote:
With the help of Juliet Barbara and Gregory Varnum, we
now have detailed
public figures regarding the energy use and energy sources of the Wikimedia
servers: As of May 2016, the servers use 222 kW, summing up to about 2 GWh
of electrical energy per year. For more information, please see
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Environmental_impact.
The next step would be to figure out the cost and
feasibility of having the
servers run on 100% renewable energy. I'd appreciate it if someone could
help me find out how this works. As a European consumer, I can order
renewable energy for my house simply by calling my energy company on the
phone, with the price difference being negligible. I assume it is not just
as easy in our case, right?
At Hawaii consumer prices, 2 GWh equals less than
US-$ 800,000; that would be roughly 1 % of the Wikimedia
Foundation budget. Don't you think it would be much better
for *actually* reducing the environmental impact to start on
the 99 % (or probably more like 99.5 %)? It would certainly
be cheaper than paying *more* for energy.
Tim