Google Going Greener

Google is about to make another huge commitment to sun -- not the technology company, but that big orb in the sky.

Earlier this week at the Conference on Clean Energy held in Boston, a Google executive detailed a few solar-power initiatives that the company is participating in, all aimed at reducing greenhouse gases. For starters, Google intends to produce some 50 megawatts of electricity from renewable forms for its operations by the year 2012.

Robyn Beavers, Google's director of environmental programs, said the company is considering other forms of renewable energy. Some of those include the 1.6 megawatt solar installation headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. Besides solar panels on building roofs, Google has built a carport with solar panels as a roof where people can recharge their hybrid cars.

While she wouldn't comment specifically on other forms of renewable energy Google was looking into, Beavers did said say that all forms of such energy aren't under evaluation, including wind, fuel cells and geothermal.

Beavers said she expects Google's investment in solar power to pay for itself in about seven-and-a-half years. She said the company's consumption from the grid has been knocked down by some 30 percent.

Posted by Ed Scannell on November 01, 2007


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