Although the issue of how much “digital effect” there is on energy usage is still open to debate, there’s no question that economy, technology and electricity are now irrevocably linked. According to the report Digital Planet 2000: The Global Information Economy, compiled by the World Information Technology and Services Alliance, the worldwide information, communications and technology market surpassed $2 trillion in 1999.
With growth continuing at a rate of 9 percent, expectations are that the industry will “smash through the $3 trillion threshold” in the next few years.
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According to the report, 90 million Internet devices were added to the online community in 1999, bringing the total to more than 260 million.
The number of PCs installed in classrooms tripled from 1992 to 1999, with the number of educational Internet users projected to exceed 110 million by 2003.
Home PC users, between 1992 and 1999, jumped 200 percent, and the multi-PC home is no longer the rule’s exception, with new houses built with integrated voice and data networks predicted to become the rule.
The number of PCs installed in businesses, homes and schools worldwide also continued to soar, rising to nearly 400 million by the close of 1999.
Companies worldwide invested $142 billion to create a Web presence and they spent an additional $140 billion in business infrastructure related to electronic commerce.
The forecast for the next five years remains bullish, with growth projected at rates faster than that of the general economy. It says in the report that pace will be accelerated by a number of factors, including continued global build out of the Internet, with new “on ramps” created using wireless networks, high speed broadband technologies, the global adoption of e-business based exchanges, auctions and integrated supply chains, and the emergence of major new ICT markets including China, India and Brazil.
North America currently remains the world’s largest ICT regional market with $796 billion in spending in 1999.
The year 1998 was the 16th year of consecutive annual electric sales increases, and the major reason given in the report for increased electric demand was the strength of the U.S. economy and favorable weather effects.
And ongoing economic growth combined with expanded electric demand from technological developments and declines in real electricity prices will influence electricity demands in the future, as communication needs continue to expand in both the workplace and at home.
