Broadband and Energy Efficiency

Broadband Internet providers are reconsidering how they think about power consumption. Focusing on long-range energy efficiency will help ensure sustainable growth and contain costs as the price per kilowatt of power and consumer demand for broadband capacity both continue to grow. Broadband firms are approaching energy efficiency as a critical advance planning exercise, just as they prepared for the major switch in Internet addressing. Power consumption will become an up-front consideration in the planning and design phases for networks, services, and equipment.

On May 30, the Center for Technology Innovation at Brookings hosted a forum on the future of energy efficiency and its relevance for the Internet ecosystem. A panel of experts discussed the rationale for and implementation challenges to bringing efficient and reliable energy throughout the network and product-planning process, beginning at the design phase.

After the program, speakers took audience questions.

Participants followed the conversation on Twitter using the hashtag #TechCTI.