Google’s ever-expanding empire has added another branch: subsidiary Google Energy has been granted an order by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to buy and sell energy at market rates. See previous post.
Does this mean Google is set to become your power company? Not yet — instead, Google wants more control over the high energy costs of its many data centers, and also aims to become carbon neutral.
A Google spokesperson told CNET: “Right now, we can’t buy affordable, utility-scale, renewable energy in our markets. We want to buy the highest quality, most affordable renewable energy wherever we can and use the green credits.”
The long race toward the ultimate environmentally friendly city (emission-free communities and carbon-neutral cities) is just getting started, with many projects yet to break ground.
Some likely will never make it off the paper they’re printed on. And, of course, there are competing definitions of exactly what constitutes true carbon neutrality. Take a look here at some of the proposed ideas, from a small hydrogen-powered community in Denmark to a vast development on Chongming Island in China that will have a population of 500,000 by 2050.
In an advancement of a patent originally filed in 2008. Last week Apple filed a patent that revealed the design for a solar powered portable device (i.e. an iPod or iPhone).
Although, no word on when we might see a solar-powered iPhone in stores, but Apple’s move to update its 2 year-old patent makes us think that the company still has solar on the brain [Source].
The Internet giant has taken the unusual step of applying for approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to become an electricity marketer, essentially giving it the authority to buy and sell bulk power at market prices, just the way large utilities and energy traders do. The move offers an indication of just how much electricity large tech firms now consume in order to run their sprawling networks of servers and mainframes.
“We’re interested in procuring more renewable energy as part of our carbon neutrality commitment, so we applied for the ability to buy and sell energy on the wholesale market to give us more flexibility,” Google spokeswoman Niki Fenwick said on Friday.
Google’s FERC application could also potentially allow the company to play a much larger role in energy markets, even becoming a wholesaler of electricity to other big buyers. Google has a long history of downplaying forays into new areas, only to later surprise competitors with new products and services.
Other technology companies that aren’t conventional energy players, like Microsoft Corp. and Intel Corp., also are studying energy markets for opportunities to make money by helping the nation improve the efficiency of the electricity business [Source Reuters] [Source WSJ].
BusinessWeek and GreenBiz.com have assembled a list of 25 intriguing energy startups, including young companies that tap geothermal heat, turn waste into biodiesel, and more. Read here.
An overview of the 25 most promising US based energy tech companies can be found here. Furthermore, this week’s edition of The Economist features also an article on energy: “The future of the energy industry“.
Shortly after midday on January 20th, Barack Obama will sit for the first time at the desk where the buck stops. The American presidency is always the world’s hardest and most consequential job, but it seems particularly so this month. A global recession of a severity not seen for perhaps 80 years; a new war in the Middle East and old ones in Africa; missions very far from accomplished in Iraq and Afghanistan; a prickly Russia and a rising China.
These international challenges must jostle for the president’s attention alongside noisy domestic concerns like rocketing unemployment, the desperate need for a better health-care system, exploding deficits and failing cities. The burdens, surely, are too many for one man to bear.
The Economist has devoted a special report on the Future of Energy. A previous post related to this matter can be found here.
The cover story of the special report suggest the following to encounter the big energy question:
The best thing that rich-world governments can do is to encourage the alternatives by taxing carbon (even knowing that places like China and India will not) and removing subsidies that favour fossil fuels. Competition should do the rest—for the fledgling firms of the alternative-energy industry are in competition with each other as much as they are with the incumbent fossil-fuel companies.
On the fifth anniversary of the Iraq war, a new report from Oil Change International, entitled A Climate of War (pdf) quantifies both the greenhouse gas emissions of the Iraq War and the opportunity costs involved in fighting war rather than climate change. At the webpage A Climate of War at oil Change you can find some facts on the war and warming.
Dutch designer Greetje van Tiem (Graduate Design Academy Eindhoven) has an intriguing idea.
Turning old newspapers into yarn that can be woven into carpets, curtains and upholstery. A great example of maximising value!
Google’s ever-expanding empire has added another branch: subsidiary Google Energy has been granted an order by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to buy and sell energy at market rates. See previous post.
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