Google plans a solar-powered electricity system at its Silicon Valley headquarters that will rank as the largest U.S. solar-powered corporate office complex, the company said on Wednesday.
The Web search leader said it is set to begin building a rooftop solar-powered generation system at its Mountain View, California, headquarters capable of generating 1.6 megawatts of electricity, or enough to power 1,000 California homes.
“This is the largest customer-owned solar electric system at a corporate site,” said Noah Kaye, director of public affairs at the Solar Energy Industries Association, an industry group based in Washington, D.C.
A Google executive said the company will rely on solar power to supply nearly a third of the electricity consumed by office workers at its roughly one-million-square-foot headquarters. This excludes power consumed by data centers that power many of Google’s Web services worldwide, he said.
Most of the solar panels will sit on the rooftops of office buildings in the Googleplex — the pet name for the site. Others will provide shaded parking as part of newly constructed solar-panel canopies over existing Google car parking lots.
Like they say, “Ain’t nothing wrong with being profitable and Green, too!”
nice!! that means google’s revenue will go up that much more if that campus isnt on the grid
@tallwookie — In the long run it might help them out — but in the short term it’s going to be expesnive. The ammount they will save in respect to the ammount they spent on the pannels will not show short term success
Just today, I read an article that said US demand for electricity was going to increase 19% in the next decade, while generating capacity was only going to increase 6%. That 13% shortfall (equivalent to about 84 nuclear power plants) is going to send our electric bills through the roof.
Solar power is looking very attractive.
#2…Bryan…..there are still some people and companies in this world who look at the long-term rather than the short term, make it all now philosophy.
Google does so much right, with the China thing being in my opinion the only blemish. It shouldn’t be to much longer now before the many wise geeks on this blog start demonizing them along side of Microsoft.
#4
You won’t catch me demonizing Google… Hell, I don’t have that much bad to say about Microsoft… Weird, because I’m some sort of hippy dippy anti-corporate liberal pinko type…
But you are right. Long term thinking is critical, and the American attitude of “get me mine now and screw anybody else” is unsustainable. It’s gonna be a hard fall. It’ll be harder on those of us who didn’t have all that much to begin with, but I’ll still be able to wear that “I told you so” smirk on my face.
Ya gotta love ’em!
Spend the money before the bubble bursts. 😉 I think them buying solar panels is a good move, since getting them off the grid will not only make for a lower longterm energy bill, but will also allow them to do some work when there are power outages. Hopefully it’s just a first move, since their data centers and 2/3 of the workers will still on the grid.
capable of generating 1.6 megawatts of electricity, or enough to power 1,000 California homes.
or about three Pcs running MS’s Vista.
#4, kudos
2,
Only children and greedy businesspeople think in the short term.
10 – It’s not the greedy businesspeople driving long-term thinking out of most corporations. It’s the bottom-line bean-counters junking anything that doesn’t contribute black ink for the next quarter. Doesn’t seem like a failure of businesspeople so much as a characteristic of letting accountants steer the ship.
Bottom-line bean counters aren’t greedy? If not for themselves, then as avatars for aforementioned greedy businesspeople.
Does that mean their offices use as much power as 1000 homes? Or are they selling electricity too?
It would seem they use enough juice for 3000 homes..
More companies need to do this!
#13
When you produce more electricty you can sell it back to the electric company.
Of course! they’re google
Thank those guys for leading the way… It’s not about saving money and cutting the electricity bill, It’s about not needing to burn more fossil fuel and dumping it in the atmosphere and having to breathe it (notice I purposely ignored global warming, seems some people do like global warming or choose to not believe it).
Not all companies can do this. To be fiscally responsible, you need to be in a climate where it’s possible to generate power most of the year. That eliminates most northern states due to snow covering the panels. What I think we really should be looking into is how to produce enough hydrogen so we can power our homes, offices and factories on generators that use hydrogen.
Global warming? Was man “polluting” the earth thousands of years ago when the ice age ended?
I do like Google, and I hope they don’t go the way of greedy corporate types. I’ve well vested in their gmail, google video, and google for domains offerings that if they suddenly decided to take it all out of “beta” and start charging for it, I’d be in some hurt.
Actually, short-term is appropriate. The payback for today’s solar panels is 5-10 years compared to whatever your local electric monopoly is charging.
And, Kyle, there are a lot of northern tier states where solar works. Depends on the snow and cloud cover patterns. Put a few kids to work with the same sort of extension-handle broom I use on my dish when it snows — and you’re back in business. I wouldn’t try it in Syracuse.
I have one bud who worked on solar systems in Wyoming and it was a piece of cake. The only extra engineering requirement was site design and strength requirements because of the damned wind.