On June 19th 2007, Google announced its involvement in the development of electric cars in terms of research and active investing. The RechargeIT project consists in developing a sun-powered battery reliable enough to run on specifically designed cars.
There's a good reason why Google needs to publicize its green thumb: The search engine company is one of the biggest energy consumer on this planet, and its constant growth makes this situation worth everyday.The Internet consumes energy, therefore it pollutes, and that's a fact.
Sometimes, people brag and say: "Google's main activity is not search, didn't you know? (you know it's advertising but you listen) It's advertising! Ha!(duh)" Well you might be both wrong as it doesn't seem to be their main point of focus:
- Google's solar installation on the roof of the company's headquarters is the biggest on a corporate campus on US soils. It produces 9,902 kilowatt-hours of electricity.
- Since 2006, Google purchased the Dalles Dam in Oregon, to power two huge data centers (the size of two football pitches) and thousands of Google servers to serve the increasing amount of daily queries. This is the "Project 02".
- In an April 2006 post, Martin Varsavsky recalls a dinner in September 2005 with Larry Page, where the co-founder explained that what could keep Google from developing was electricity. Google is by now the largest owner of computers in the world, which means over the top PG&E bills.
Google is also involved in the "Climate Savers Computing Initiative" (CSCI), which is basically going to lobby in Washington, backed by scientific research teams. Officially, the group's mission is to "brings together industry, consumers and conservation organizations to significantly increase the energy efficiency of computers and servers." We are far from the RechargeIt electric car initiative launched by the philantropic arm of Google, which I consider a mere toilet spray PR strategy.
September 2005, Luiz André Barroso explained the challenges that Google is facing with its energy-consuming business.He concludes that solutions have to be found in order to cut power operating costs.
A few months after that, a Google engineer has warned that if the performance per watt of today's computers doesn't improve, the electrical costs of running them could end up far greater than the initial hardware price tag. Barroso encouraged right then to turn CMP into an industry standard.
The problem lies somewhere else too: Apparently "50 percent of the power delivered from a wall socket to a PC never actually performs any work," says Urs Hölzle, Google fellow and senior vice president of operations. "Half the energy gets converted to heat or is dissipated in some other manner in the AC-to-DC conversion. Around 30 percent of the power delivered to the average server gets lost."
Once again, solutions have been developped to save on PC power. A new Web site, Blackle, aims to act as a starting point for eco-conscious Web searchers. The site, which serves as a front end for Google searches, reverses the color schemes of search-result pages so users see light-colored text on a black background.
With a black screen, Google could actually save 750 megawatt-hours a year. That works if everybody had a cathode-ray tube monitor, because the color on screen mattered very little to the energy color consumption of the LCD monitor.
Since they figured out such a brilliant way to gather, organize and redistribute information, couldn't Google figure out a solution for power waste?
Here's where I think that Google is going:
In July 2005, Google and Goldman Sachs jointly invested nearly US$100 million in Current Communications Group, a BPL (broadband over power lines) provider, which presently offers Current Broadband in the Cincinnati area.
With BPL, Google could turn power into an e-commerce good. You could buy chunks of power delivered instantly straight to your PC through your IP line. With the technology developed by the RechargeIT team, this power could be used for all electric devices thanks to specific movable batteries.
The specificity of renewable energy is, unlike coal or nuclear, it will likely come from thousands or tens of thousands of different locations. The big challenges will be managing that flow into and out of the nation's electric grid, and that companies that manage the flow of information are well placed to handle that task.
Google could easily be that company that manages the flow of individuals-generated electricity. Consider yourself with a solar installation that produces twice the power you actually need and you want to sell it. Simply go on Google Adwords, and it'll find you a buyer. The whole process could be entirely automated, from when the sun reaches your garden until the money is wired to your account.
While Google succeeded in building a technological ruby, it failed in making it sustainable. All of this could change. The rechargeIT project was just a sneak preview. I see an Internet running exclusively on clean power, a user-generated power.
Hilarious video on Golbguru's blog - recommended
Upbeat way of giving the gist of this day - funny
For all your software offshoring needs: Venus
Sorry had a problem setting my comment box!
