I also didn't understand. Also I think the author misses a vital point that voluntary computing is practiced on many computers that are already running, like a computer used for word processing, or browsing the web... That is actually what makes the computation environmentally friendly, because it uses an already fired up machine, instead of spinning up a designated HPC that can sometimes sit idle (e.g. Christmas Holidays)
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There is a big difference in power consumption with a modern computer at idle, and at 100% processing background tasks for distributed computing. Typical power draw for an idle Intel based desktop is on the order of 75W including the monitor. This goes up to 150 to 250W (or more) at full tilt.