A report from IoT Analytics projects the number of installed IoT devices worldwide to reach 30.9 billion in 2025. This is up from 11.7 billion in 2020 and an estimated 20 billion this year. The number includes deployments in areas such as smart home devices, wearables, connected cars, and industrial sensors. Deployments can encompass a small number of devices to potentially millions.

One example of a large one is in the city of Barcelona, which has implemented a smart city project that includes more than 500,000 sensors and devices to monitor and optimize various aspects of urban life, such as traffic flow, air quality, and waste management. Similarly, some large-scale industrial IoT deployments in manufacturing and agriculture may involve millions of sensors to monitor and

Cisco's internet traffic research finds IoT traffic accounted for approximately 7.9% of global IP traffic in 2020, expected to increase to 15.7% this year. With IP traffic expected to reach 5,500 exabytes this year, according to Cisco, that amounts to more than 850 exabytes – 27 terabytes per second.

All of these worldwide IoT deployments are expected to consume 5.5% of the world's electricity grid this year, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). This totals more than 1,300 terawatt hours, or about $200 million worth of juice.

And this year is just the beginning...expect IoT deployments to continue to grow at more than 20% per year, according to several sources.

Photo from City of Barcelona Government.