Solar Protocol proposes powering global digital networks with the sun

By directing web traffic to solar-powered server nodes located where the sun is strongest, a major climate crisis contributor could become far greener. 

A team of researchers at the NYU Tandon School of Engineering has proposed a radically different approach to trans-global web data trafficking, moving away from the established model that sees requests by connected devices sent to the nearest server bank in geographical terms to illicit the fastest response. 

Solar Protocol, which was initially supported by the Eyebeam Rapid Response to a Better Digital Future programme and Code for Science & Society Digital Infrastructure Incubator, highlights how the growing energy requirements of the digital economy represents a significant contributor to the climate crisis. For example, a single Ethereum transaction on the blockchain can use the same amount of power as 329,000 individual credit card data transfers.

Those involved in the work are now suggesting a radical alternative that will essentially see many transactions and information exchanges routed through infrastructure powered by photovoltaic cells. Prioritising server banks in parts of the world that have the most and strongest sunlight hours in real time, the process would significantly improve efficiency by utilising renewable energy as much as possible to conduct activities. 

Highly innovative, Solar Protocol has been awarded Mozilla’s Creative Media Award, which celebrates projects, communities and individuals that reimagine data in ways that shift control away from big tech. In this instance, recognition comes as a result of both potential energy savings, and spotlighting the domineering politics of the internet in its current form.  

‘This is in no way an alternative to the internet, so the goal here is not to scale it up. But we are publishing the system as an open standard, which means, theoretically, anyone could launch a similar network — say, a network of art museums,’ said Benedetta Piantella, of the Center for Urban Science and Progress, one of three scientists who led on the project. 

‘Solar Protocol is a great opportunity for us as artists to foreground issues of climate change and how technology is driving it,’  added Tega Brain, Professor of Technology, Culture and Society at NYU. ‘The project has catalysed conversations about AI and automation, since in-network user traffic is decided by solar energy, so we are using intelligence from natural and dynamic versus a data-driven machine learning model; it’s an alternative proposition. Why not think of planetary limits as intelligence? After all, they will shape the future of life on earth whether we like it or not.’ 

In related news, the neural networks used for advertising and suggested content on social networks have been described as an energy ‘black hole’, capable of exhausting every power source on the planet with little chance of ever being perfected. 

Image credit: Derek Sutton