University of Wollongong research aims to cut carbon cost of metaverse technology

The metaverse relies on energy-hungry technologies like VR, AI, cloud servers, and blockchain, but measuring their exact power use has been difficult. A new ARC funded facility at the University of Wollongong lets researchers track real time energy consumption of each component. The goal is to redesign algorithms and systems to cut voltage and reduce carbon emissions without sacrificing performance. Professor Willy Susilo leads the project in partnership with Monash, Deakin, UWA, and QUT. He sees potential for a greener metaverse to connect Australians across vast distances, such as letting people attend the 2032 Brisbane Olympics via energy efficient avatars. The work focuses on practical optimization rather than broad promises, targeting the black box problem of digital energy use.