The centres house the world’s billions of social media, email and cloud computing accounts, while also powering streaming platforms like Netflix, and can use up to 50 times as much energy as an office building of the same size, according to the US government's National Science Foundation .
Streaming content in high quality comes with a bad conscience for some consumers, as environmentalists have debated the power usage of streaming platforms, reliant on fossil fuels being burned to deliver content to subscribers. "The circuitry in photonic chips uses photons – particles of light – rather than the electrons that course through conventional computer chips. Moving at the speed of light, photons enable the extremely rapid, energy-efficient transmission of data," the NSF said.