Solar energy to power Google

Google has announced that it going to be installing a solar panel array to supply up to 30% of its peak energy requirements at its Mountain View premises.  The energy generated will apparently be the equivalent of 1 000 average California homes. 

Epic games of beach volleyball, urban indoor workspaces infused with natural light, enthusiasm for the outdoors – at Google, we’ve always taken advantage of the sun. And now we’re ready to use the sun yet another way: to create clean electricity.

Soon we plan to begin installation of 1.6 megawatts of solar photovoltaic panels at our Mountain View campus. This project will be the largest solar installation on any corporate campus in the U.S., and we think it’s one of the largest on any corporate site in the world. The panels will cover the roofs of the four main buildings of the Googleplex, and also those of two additional buildings across the street. There will also be a portion of this installation on new solar panel support structures in a few parking lots. The amount of electricity that will be generated is equivalent to powering about 1,000 average California homes. We’ll use that electricity to power several of our Mountain View office facilities, offsetting approximately 30% of our peak electricity consumption at those buildings.

This will obviously have the effect of saving Google electricity costs once the cost of the array has been covered and it is also the right thing to do.

Another story that promotes the use of solar energy-based technology is this story in Web Worker Daily which looks at a few solar powered options for keeping your mobile devices charged.  Not only does it make sense to use devices that convert solar energy into electricity from the perspective of keeping your electricity costs down, solar energy is a clean and renewable energy source which more people should be using.

Tags: google, solar power, solar energy, renewable energy