Google’s Search for Sustainability

The Atlantic Wind Connection is a proposed massive underwater power line which will connect the East Coast of the USA with offshore wind farms. Once completed, the 380-mile-long link will allow 7,000 megawatts of energy produced offshore to power up to two million homes.

This ambitious project came one step closer to reality yesterday after clearing another legislative hurdle and – as one of the biggest investors in the project – Google’s green cred gets another boost. They are so keen to demonstrate their commitment to “a better web that’s better for the environment” they have a whole section of their site called Google Green, devoted to their energy policies and investments. They are known for heavily investing in renewable energy resources, including large PV Panel projects, and cash injections to funds for residential solar power projects.

The search giant’s commitment to renewable energy was even highlighted by Greenpeace. Their recent report “How Clean is your Cloud?” compared 15 tech companies who provide data centre facilities on their energy policies and usage. Google fared exceptionally well, even receiving Greenpeace’s only “A” rating for Renewables and Advocacy, while some of their competitors were heavily criticised for over-reliance on coal energy.

Google were obviously so proud of this that they have now released a video telling us more about what they do to make sure their data centres run as efficiently as possible:

Unfortunately, Google does still rely on both coal and nuclear sources for their massive energy use; a whopping 198.8 billion kWh in 2010. But they are making genuine steps to both offset and reduce consumption, and use renewable resources.

Do you think Google are a shining example of where tech companies should be going with their energy policies? Or do they still have a lot more work to do? We’d love to know what you think.

And if you want to make your own web experience at home a little greener, learn more about our residential PV Panels.

Solution for all future energy needs? Solar power!

“The human race must finally utilise direct sun power or revert to barbarism,”
- Frank Shuman, 1914

In the past five years the renewable electricity sector has grown rapidly and now provides 20% of the world’s power generation. Many UK consumers are beginning to get on board with this development – installing PV panels on their rooftops to take advantage of solar power. As green energy becomes more of a reality – solar power and electricity become increasingly viable to several countries, not only on a consumer-by-consumer basis, but as one of the primary solutions for all of their current and future energy needs.

Targets are currently being set in many developing and developed countries. Bangladesh, for example, aims to meet 10% of the total power demands for its 150 million citizens through the use of solar energy by 2020. So far 870,000 citizens have benefitted from a program funded by the World Bank, which focuses on the installation of solar powered light systems.

Bangladesh isn’t the only country investing in solar energy; German particle physicist Gerhard Knies – a solar enthusiast who bluntly stated “we are really, as a species, so stupid” not to make better use of the sun as a resource for energy.

In 1986 Knies discovered that over a period of only six hours the world’s deserts receive more energy from the sun than humans consume in a year. This calculation in mind, Knies hypothesised that if even the smallest fraction of this mass of energy could be harnessed; an area of the Sahara desert equivalent to size of Wales could effectively power the whole of Europe.

Knies’ passion for solar energy questioned the possibility of the human race evolving past dirty and dangerous fuels forever – his answer took the form of a project called ‘Desertec’, and will be discussed in the continuation of this blog post.

Stay tuned to learn more about this exciting and ambitious project.