According to a New York Times blog post, the Natural Resources Defense Council has released a study revealing that video game consoles consume an estimated 16 billion kilowatt hours per year, which is roughly equal to the annual electricity use of the city of San Diego.

Sony’s PlayStation 3 came out as the Hummer of all the consoles reviewed, requiring 150 watts while in use. According to the Annual MediaWise 11th Annual Video Game Report Card (2006) an average of 22% of American kids spend two or more hours a day playing video games. If you consider that a flatscreen television sucks around 150 watts as well, that’s 300 watts for every hour of gameplay - equivalent to blasting a pair of 10-inch subwoofers or the amount of energy created by this windmill.

According to the NYT:

In terms of overall energy use for the best-selling consoles — whether regularly turned off or not — the report describes Nintendo’s Wii, which draws 16 watts of power when in use, as a “juice sipper.” Microsoft’s Xbox 360, drawing 119 watts while active, sits in the middle. Sony’s PlayStation 3 was rated as the power hog, at 150 watts while in use.

The real problem, though, is not so much the consoles’ use of energy as it is the way that energy is managed. According to the Guinness World Records Gamer’s Edition, the world record for fastest completion of the video game Super Mario Bros IV (aka Super Mario World) is 10min 54sec. But most people can’t beat a game that fast. It takes them days, weeks, and even months of focused gaming before they can finish and (particularly if there is no save function) they often pause their game and leave the console on. In addition, none of the video game consoles reviewed had a viable hibernation energy-saving mode like Macs and PCs.

The study’s lead researcher says he hopes the findings will encourage game console manufacturers to build completely seamless power savings features into their products, including the save-game feature

[Via: New York Times]