Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance reports Ethereum's annual power consumption fell 99.9% to 7.87 GWh post-Merge, with 56.4% of network electricity from renewable sources.
Tech & Launches ·
The Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance released a report detailing Ethereum's energy consumption following The Merge, finding that the network now consumes approximately 7.87 GWh annually—a reduction exceeding 99.9% from pre-Merge levels. Annual carbon emissions dropped to roughly 2.37 ktCO₂e, down approximately 99.98%, based on an infrastructure audit covering about 8,522 nodes.
The report identified geographic and infrastructure concentration across the network. The United States, Germany, Finland, and France collectively host roughly 62% of Ethereum full nodes, while three providers—Hetzner, Amazon Web Services, and OVH—together account for about 40% of all nodes. Renewable energy sources supplied 56.4% of the network's electricity, with the analysis suggesting that local power grid carbon intensity now represents the primary driver of Ethereum's environmental footprint rather than its consensus mechanism itself.
The findings highlight the extent of change introduced by The Merge's shift from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake validation. What remains unaddressed is how node distribution and renewable energy percentages may evolve as Ethereum's validator ecosystem matures, or whether the concentration among major hosting providers poses risks to network resilience.