Is There Anywhere That Google Isn’t Making an Impact?
Google is going into the Green Energy business by turning their Corporate Headquarters into a Solar Power Generation plant. They will generate enough power to supply 1,000 homes. Even with Googles pockets flowing with cash, I bet they are taking advantage the govenment grants that are offered to corporations to make this move. See California Car Wash post for more details of the grant program. Google will save on the power and add more money to it’s coffers by taking advantage of the government funding. Watch for another button on the Google toolbar that will pull money right from your pocket.
But from another angle, maybe Google can succed in getting the attention of the corporate world. Just think if every corporation was able to generate enough environmently friendly energy for their own work force. Wouldn’t that be a noticeable impact on our world?
Here is the story as it appeared in the paper.
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Google’s search for energy solution leads company to solar panels
Project expected to generate enough power to supply 1,000 homes
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Michael Liedtke
The Associated Press
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
SAN FRANCISCO - Google Inc. is converting its renowned headquarters to run partly on solar power, hoping to set an example for corporate America.
The Internet search leader announced what is believed to be the largest solar project undertaken by a U.S. company during a solar energy conference in Silicon Valley.
Google believes the sun eventually can deliver as much as 30 per cent of the power at its one-million-square-foot campus in Mountain View — a suburb south of San Francisco.
The ambitious project will require installing more than 9,200 solar panels on a high-tech mecca nicknamed the Googleplex.
After leasing the offices for several years, Google bought the campus for $319 US million earlier this year. Once they’re in place next spring, the solar panels are expected to produce about 1.6 megawatts of electricity, or enough power to supply about 1,000 homes.
The job is being handled by Pasadena-based EI Solutions, part of a high-tech incubator run by entrepreneur Bill Gross, whose idea to link ads to search-engine requests during the 1990 inspired the business model that generates most of Google’s profits.
Google wouldn’t disclose the project’s cost, but it won’t strain a company with nearly $10 billion in cash.
The anticipated savings from future energy bills should enable Google to recoup the solar project’s costs in five to 10 years, estimated David Radcliffe, the company’s vice-president of real estate.
“We hope corporate America is paying attention. We want to see a lot of copycats” of this project, Radcliffe said.
Energy costs are a major concern at Google, which already consumes a tremendous amount of power to run the computer farms that keep its search engine humming.
Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin also are big supporters of alternative energy. The billionaires began driving hybrid cars shortly after the vehicles hit the mass market.
Page also is among the investors in Tesla Motors Inc., a Silicon Valley startup developing a sports car that runs on electricity.
Despite technological advances since the first photovoltaic cells were invented 50 years ago, solar power is still two to three times more expensive than fossil fuels in the U.S. and relies on government subsidies to compete.
The solar energy industry nevertheless is expected to grow from $11 billion in 2005 to $51 billion in 2015, says Clean Edge Inc., a market research firm.
© The Edmonton Journal 2006
Copyright © 2006 CanWest Interactive, a division of CanWest MediaWorks Publications, Inc.. All rights reserved.
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