Ethereum's transition to Proof-of-Stake (PoS) has radically changed the network's energy profile. According to the latest analysis by the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF), Ethereum's annual electricity consumption now stands at approximately 7.87 GWh. This is 99.96% less than before the historic The Merge upgrade, which took place on September 15, 2022.
Before the transition, the network's continuous power consumption was approximately 2.4 GW. Today, this figure is estimated at just 0.90 MW. The security economics have fundamentally changed: under Proof-of-Work, electricity was the direct cost of securing the blockchain; now, under PoS, it has become an operational expense for validators, with security provided by staked capital.
Calculation Methodology: From Socket to Network
The CCAF applied a "bottom-up" approach, measuring the actual energy consumption of 20 combinations of client software and hardware configurations. A home setup consumed about 18 W, while a professional workstation consumed about 150 W. Considering that 36% of nodes operate on home connections and 64% in cloud or corporate infrastructure, the average figure was 105 W per node.
The calculation is based on approximately 8,522 detectable full nodes. It is important to emphasize: this is a lower bound, not an exact number, as the monitoring system does not account for private setups and nodes behind firewalls. The baseline scenario yields 7.87 GWh per year, with a range from 1.26 GWh to 11.49 GWh depending on the type of equipment used.
Geography and Hosting Centralization
As of May 2026, the leaders in node hosting are the United States (31%), Germany (16%), Finland (8%), and France (6%). Together, these countries control about 62% of the infrastructure. The largest hosting providers — Hetzner, AWS, and OVH — serve approximately 40% of nodes. This concentration represents a systemic risk: a simultaneous outage at one of these providers could disable a significant portion of the network.
Comparison with Other PoS Networks
In absolute energy consumption, Ethereum ranks second in the CCAF sample, behind only Solana (13.48 GWh per year). However, when normalized by market capitalization, the picture changes: Ethereum consumes only 33 kWh per $1 million of network value. For comparison, Solana's figure is 283 kWh per $1 million — 8.5 times higher. The best result in this metric is demonstrated by BNB Chain. The total consumption of all studied PoS networks is estimated at approximately 38 GWh per year.
It is important to note that the "energy per $1 million capitalization" metric does not reflect network throughput. Furthermore, the report's authors rightly rejected the "energy per transaction" metric, as approximately 92% of all operations in the Ethereum ecosystem occur through Layer 2 scaling networks. Calculating only for the mainnet would provide a distorted picture.
Carbon Footprint: 99.98% Reduction
Renewable and nuclear sources provide 56.4% of the electricity powering Ethereum nodes, with fossil fuels accounting for 43.6%. The network's annual carbon footprint is estimated at 2,370 tCO₂-eq. This is 99.98% lower than the last pre-Merge figure. Further emission reductions will depend on the decarbonization of energy systems in node-hosting countries — even at current consumption levels, the footprint can decrease as the share of low-carbon generation grows.
My comment: This data definitively solidifies Ethereum's status as one of the most energy-efficient major blockchain networks. However, the dependence on a limited number of hosting providers and the geographic concentration of nodes remain critical vulnerabilities that need to be addressed to ensure the network's long-term sustainability.