Energy and physical resource impacts of quantum computing merit greater attention - Nature
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Quantum computing research and development is growing worldwide; yet the energy and physical resource demands of future quantum-accelerated data centres are unknown. Planning for quantum computing requires strong collaboration between research communities across engineering, physics, environmental sciences, economics, policy, and energy systems and scenario modelling. Access through your institution Buy or subscribe This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution Access options Access through your institution Subscribe to this journal Receive 12 digital issues and online access to articles 111,21 € per year only 9,27 € per issue Learn more Buy this articlePurchase on SpringerLinkInstant access to the full article PDF.39,95 €Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout Fig. 1: Increasing entanglement between researchers. ReferencesPan, J.-W. Quantum technologies need big investments to deliver on their big promises. Nature 638, 862 (2025).Article CAS Google Scholar Siddik, M. A. B., Shehabi, A. & Marston, L. The environmental footprint of data centers in the United States. Environ. Res. Lett. 16, 064017 (2021).Article Google Scholar Betting on qubits. Nat. Electron. 8, 1–2 (2025).Parker, E. & Vermeer, M. J. D. Estimating the energy requirements to operate a cryptanalytically relevant quantum computer. Preprint at https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2304.14344 (2023).Megrant, A. & Chen, Y. Scaling up superconducting quantum computers. Nat. Electron. 8, 549–551 (2025).Article Google Scholar Google. Environmental Report 2024 (Google, 2024).Ezratty, O.
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