Solana is an open source, public programmable blockchain platform specifically designed to host decentralised applications. Solana is rapidly growing and taking market share from the ethereum network as it continues to struggle with scalability and network congestion, resulting in large transaction fees and energy requirements producing a large carbon footprint. (50,000 transaction per sec SOL vs 30 transactions per sec ETH)
Solana is a POS (proof of stake) blockchain meaning the validator nodes on the network are staked to stake SOL tokens. This process requires much less energy to complete transactions resulting in a significantly more environmentally friendly process than the traditional POW (proof of work) blockchains such as ETH & BTC. Validators still require power to operate however their power consumption is far lower than that of the POW miners.
1 x Sol transaction uses approx 1,836 J of energy
1 x ETH transaction 692,820,000 J of energy
1 x Google search uses 1,080 Joules of energy