Each Solana transaction consumes less energy than two Google searches, report shows

A Solana Foundation report published Nov. 24 showed that each transaction on the Solana network consumes less energy than two Google searches. In addition, a network transaction uses 24 times less energy than charging a phone.

To prepare the report, the foundation said it hired energy and climate consultant Robert Murphy in May of this year. He would have helped to “frame the environmental impact of the transactions carried out in Solana’s global state machine”.

Solana power consumption

As the foundation stated in the report, the Solana network was designed to be a high-performance blockchain. Therefore, the network is very energy efficient.

“Transactions are Solana’s fundamental building blocks. Buying an NFT, making a trade or other activities you can perform using Solana are all transactions. How the network is based on Proof of Stake, the security of the network does not depend on the use of energy”, said the foundation.

In addition, the report noted that on the Solana network there is no need for energy-intensive mining. This implies that the network is extremely efficient in environmental terms.

Precisely, it was determined that a single Solana transaction consumes 0.00051 kWh, or 1,836 Joules, of energy. By way of comparison, a transaction on the ETH network consumes 692,820,000 J.

It is worth noting that the report provides dynamic analysis that can be recalculated as the network grows.

Also according to the report, Solana has 1,196 validator nodes and an estimated 20 million transactions. To process this, it uses about 3,186,000 kWh per year.

“That’s the equivalent of the average electricity use of 986 American homes,” they compared.

Solana wants to reduce impact even more

Even though the numbers presented are considered satisfactory, the Solana Foundation has promised to further reduce the environmental impact of its ecosystem.

By the end of this year, they plan to introduce a program to help make Solana’s network of validators carbon neutral and offset the ecosystem’s footprint.

“The Solana Foundation will continue to release periodic reports on Solana’s energy use and take steps to minimize the ecosystem’s environmental impact,” they concluded.