The Solana Foundation published a report which reveals that a single transaction on the Solana network consumes less energy than two Google searches and 24 times less energy than charging a smartphone.
The report published on November 25 further explains that one transaction on Solana Network consumes 0.00051 kWh (1,836 Joules) of energy. On the other hand, Google reports that a single Google search takes 0.0003 kWh (1,080 Joules) of energy.
However, the report further claims that the whole Solana Network consumes almost the same amount of energy as 986 average American households, which is estimated to be 3,186,000 kWh per year.
Solana Network uses way less energy than Bitcoin and Ethereum
With 1,196 validator nodes processing an approximated 20 million transactions per year, the Solana network is less decentralized than top currencies like Bitcoin or Ethereum. According to the report, the Foundation will lower the network’s energy consumption even more by adopting a program to become carbon-neutral and offset the ecosystem’s environmental footprint by the end of 2021. There was no further data on whether the network intends to buy carbon offsets or cut its emissions.
The Solana Foundation joined hands with Robert Murphy in May 2021 to draft the report to frame the Solana network’s impact on the environment. Murphy describes himself as a “Builder and investor focused on climate and energy technologies” and has founded Othersphere. It has formerly also worked as an Energy Specialist at the World Bank.
The network, which works on the Proof of Stake mechanism, uses way less energy than those relying on the Proof of Work mechanism like Bitcoin and Ethereum. Notably, a single Bitcoin transaction consumes approximately 4,222,800,000 joules.
Furthermore, Ethereum uses around 644,004,000 joules per transaction based on the amount of energy required to run the network and the average number of transactions. As a network technically does not consume a specific amount of energy for a single transaction. It can be the same whether it processes one or a million transactions. Therefore, these are rough comparisons.