SSDs have several advantages over HDDs, not just in terms of read and write speed. With no moving parts, the likelihood of damage from accidental shock and vibration is reduced. But also, SSDs consume less than HDDs, but then why do they generate more CO2 emissions?
SSDs are bad for the environment
As we mentioned, the consumption of an SSD that’s enough smaller for the consumption of hdd hard drive. Therefore, they tend to be thought to be better for the environment. At least, that’s what we all thought until we came across a study that really opened our eyes.
Researchers from the universities of Wisconsin and British Columbia studied the emissions from SSDs and HDDs. Specifically, they analyzed the emissions of an SSD and a hard drive with a capacity of 1TB. This makes the comparison as realistic as possible.
The first interesting fact that the study gives us is the energy consumption of these units. The units The HDDs have a consumption in 5 years of 183.9 kWh and in 10 years they have a consumption of 367.9 kWh. On the other hand, SSDs have a consumption in 5 years of 56.9 kWh and after 10 years the consumption is 113.8 kWh.
With regard to CO2 emissions, the The hard drive would emit 79.6 Kg in 5 yearss and 159 Kg in 10 years. While the The SSD would emit 24.6 Kg in 5 years
You must think the data contradicts everything we’ve told you, but you haven’t considered production. And it is that, in fact, producing an SSD pollutes a lot rather than producing a hard drive.
Making them is the differentiator
According to the researchers, a The HDD emits in 10 years a total of 40 Kg of CO2 in manufacturing. The SSDFor its part, emit a total of 320 kg of CO2 in 10 years. It can be seen that the manufacture of SSDs is no less than eight times more polluting than that of HDD hard drives.
This brutal difference means that SSDs, overall, pollute almost twice as much as HDDs. According to the end result, an HDD emits a total of 99.6 Kg of CO2 in 5 years and an SSD emits 184 Kg of CO2. Regarding emissions over 5 years, HDDs emit 199 Kg of CO2 and SSDs emit 369.2 Kg of CO2.
The researchers indicate that for alleviate the problemthe optimum is use the SSD as long as possible. They also state that MLC and SLC memory are the best because they offer higher reliability and lifespan than TLC and QLC drives.
It is now up to memory chip manufacturers to improve the efficiency of memory production. This is not something simple, because manufacturing a memory chip is much more expensive than the mechanical parts of a hard drive.
