What Google did for the worldwide web, it’s looking to do for solar power for homes.

You could say that the subject of energy has preoccupied Google for years. Recognising that running and cooling servers was costing a fortune and consuming vast amounts of expensive energy, Google looked more closely and discovered after research that, by altering the voltages and power supplies inside their servers, they could reduce their overall energy consumption by as much as 50 percent below what most other companies use to run their systems. Their eye has been on energy, and solar power for homes by default, ever since.

Google more recently has launched an initiative to produce low-cost green power, also known as “renewable energy cheaper than coal”. They’re looking for 1 gigawatt, enough electricity to deliver solar power for homes to a city the size of San Francisco. That’s just one of the ‘big impact, big risks’ projects they have currently embarked upon.

Last year, Eric Schmidt, Google’s chairman and CEO, had a public debate with his counterpart at General Electric Co. (GE), Jeff Immelt on the subject of solar power for homes and other green issues at the Google’s Mountain View, California headquarters.

Immelt said, “I don’t think this is hard. I’d say health care is hard. Solving the U.S.’s health-care system is actually quite difficult. Energy actually isn’t hard. The technology exists; it doesn’t have to be invented. It needs to be applied.… We make the gadgets—smart electric meters, things like that. People like Google can make the software, which makes the system. That’s the key to renewable energy.”

Schmidt and Immelt believe that solar power for homes and renewable energy in general will be the next defining aspect of the national economy – the steam engine of the Obama age. They are looking aside from rescuing the earth from global warming, also to the consequential untold amounts of jobs and economic growth.

GE already has a vast energy division which already includes massive investments in windmills, power plants and the like. Naturally it is now looking to take part of the renewable-energy business too. Aligning itself with Google is the perfect joint venture for both parties.

For Google, the job does not look unfamiliar. Some time ago, Google brought order to the anarchic worldwide web. Today, Google is looking to bring order to the U.S. national grid, helping consumers choose when to power up appliances and plug-in cars and when to turn them off.

Google is set to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in reorganizing by decentralizing America’s antiquated energy infrastructure. It will be built in the image of the internet.

“If you do this right,” says Schmidt, “it sure sounds a lot like the internet – a set of cooperating networks where the traffic and power flow, where people can connect with anything they want. They can be consumers as well as producers. The internet created a tremendous amount of wealth for America, and I think we can do it here too.”

Google wants to make your home ‘energy-smart’. Appliances will know when to power up and power down. Heating and cooling systems will automatically adapt themselves to energy price changes. It’s very similar to a software problem – a mass of information to be made sense of.

They are looking critically at the way energy is produced. The system currently is a century old and massively outdated. Large, central power stations send energy to factories and homes. Often the pollution factor has condemned them to being far from big cities because of. Meanwhile, the old power lines leak like sieves. As much as 7 percent of U.S. electricity is lost through the nation’s 200,000 miles of high-voltage wires. Installing new power lines requires cooperation among local, state, and federal authorities. For these and other reasons, the U.S. grid has the capacity to generate power four times faster than it can transmit it. Recently Bill Richardson, the governor of New Mexico and a former energy secretary, called the grid “third world.”

Estimates say that the U.S. needs about 20,000 miles of new power lines as well as a vast upgrade of the analogue grid distributing energy, with new computer based systems to manage the network. Because windmills and solar cells offer energy at variable times only (when it’s windy/sunny) the new automated grid needs to be able to adapt to the constantly fluctuating power flow from these renewable sources.

Google’s green-energy czar, Bill Weihl drives a Prius and has installed solar power for homes with solar panels on his San Francisco rooftop, which he expects will pay off in energy savings after 20 years. Another Google green apostle is Dan Reicher, who directs energy and climate-change initiatives for Google. Reicher helped raise $2 million for the Obama campaign, as a leader of a group named Cleantech & Green Business for Obama. He helped to chart the energy policy for Obama’s transition team and allegedly he was on the short list to become Obama’s energy secretary, thought the job ultimately went to Steven Chu, the Nobel Prize winning physicist.

An unofficial energy adviser for Obama, Al Gore proudly sits on Google’s advisory board. Meanwhile Bill Gates and others are working with them developing algae – possibly a better way to fill up your car’s gas tank.

All of these leaders recognise that renewables and the smart grid won’t happen without billions in government incentives and subsidies. Immelt said. “Look, I’m a lifelong Republican; I believe in free markets … There’s been no such thing, in all the businesses we do, as one in which the government hasn’t played some role. So let’s just be clear about that.”

As part of their collaboration, GE and Google will launch an advocacy campaign in the nation’s capital to push for more federal subsidies and incentives for green power. The government, Immelt says, must be a catalyst for change.

Optimistically, Schmidt says, “I’m quite convinced that if you follow my reasoning, and if you take advantage of the technological opportunities, the funding opportunities, and the apparent willingness of the U.S. government to write large checks in a series of crises, we could do this on Monday.”

Go solar power for homes!

from Sam Deane,
your solar power for homes guide,
at www dot go solar power for homes dot com

PS. Thank you for your time and interest and hope you enjoyed this article on solar power for homes. If so, please take the time to Digg, Stumble Upon, delicious or add to the other social network of your choice to help us spread the word about these issues.

                                                           
                                                                 Visit Our Go Solar Power For Homes
                                                                 All-New Homes & Gardens Solar Store!

 

                         Don’t forget to subscribe to our RSS Feed!

 

Info via: portfolio.com  Pic via: stock.xchng

This Trackback by Sam Deane, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

 

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,