Cambridge study puts Ethereum near the lower end of PoS energy intensity
Cambridge estimates Ethereum’s annual electricity use at about 7.87 GWh, placing it near the low end of major proof-of-stake networks on energy intensity. On a market-value basis, Ethereum used roughly 33 kWh per $1 million, the second-lowest among the PoS networks studied, behind BNB Chain. Solana was the most electricity-intensive in the comparison, at about 13.48 GWh annually and roughly 283 kWh per $1 million, about 8.5 times Ethereum’s level. The study measured node power use across multiple software-client setups and estimated an average draw of about 105 watts per node, with around 8,522 discoverable full nodes. It found that about 56.4% of Ethereum’s electricity mix came from renewable and nuclear sources, with the rest from fossil fuels. Since the Merge in 2022, Ethereum’s switch from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake has cut electricity use by more than 99.9%.
