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 at 11:57 AM