Google invests in solar power
One can only imagine the amount of power consumed each day in Google data centres around the world. As more and more of our life is stored in the cloud and as the number of cloud based services we consume increase, it stands to reason that there will be a need for more whirring hard drives and racks of switches and modems. I won't pretend to know much about the intimate details of how things are at a Google data centre, but the company have in the past been very forthcoming with an insight into how it all works. One thing you can be sure of however, is that it takes some juice to keep these things operational.
I read earlier today that Google have invested $168 million in the Ivanpah solar electric energy project in the Mojave desert. The plant will be capable of producing around 392 MW of clean energy, or the equivalent of taking 90,000 cars of the road for 25 years. Now if that isn't an investment for future generations I don't know what is. With this project Google will have invested $250 million in clean energy.
The only thing I find surprising is that more companies aren't already doing this. For example, other giant companies such as Microsoft and Facebook would do well to follow Google's example here and help push green technology forwards. Many governments around the world wish they could do more and there has been a great deal of progress in this area in recent years, but still it isn't enough for the long term future of our world.
I don't wish to jump into line with environmental types here, but it should be obvious to us all that we are all becoming more and more power hungry and that energy has to come from somewhere. Fossil fuels definitely aren't the answer and the future of nuclear energy could somewhat be in the balance too. Large technology companies such as the ones I have just mentioned are in the right place at the right time with the money to be able to make a difference.
Let's see who steps up next, but I wouldn't be surprised if one day all of Google's data centres are powered by renewable energy.
