261–270 of 273 posts
Wondering if any residential provider in the world is offering a service where you can say "sell me only renewables". There'd probably be a cost associated with this, but I think I'd have to consider it if it were available locally.
Definitely going to make the switch to the
> 100% renewable energy – for a 2 cent per kilowatt hour premium over current PG&E rates
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There are basically two numbers here: 1. Net usage after selling off excess energy 2. Net usage assuming there is no demand for excess when you have it (maybe everyone on the grid has solar panels) Achieving 100% in #1 is great and I applaud Google for it. If everyone did this we could drastically reduce overall usage of fossil fuels, but I believe the fear is that people won't know the distinction and will assume "i…
Can I test an assumption with you? Lets say that "everyone does it", and by that I mean literally everyone on the planet generates more renewable energy on some grid somewhere, than they use on the grids they are using. That is the definition of 100% renewable energy use is it not? You can't push power into a grid if nobody is using it, they don't work that way. So if the world is using 12.3 TW and 12.3TW is being ge…
What about the consumers of my excess energy? Are they operating at 20% renewable and 80% fossil?
If my 20% in excess is counted towards my total renewable energy consumption, and other consumers also claim that 20% towards their renewable consumption, then we're just double counting. No?
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high paying code writing or going into physics/engineering. Engineering is much different than software architecture. One requires hard sciences competency, whereas one you can go into for years with none, and be successful.
I think you will find that doing what google does at scale does require some "hard science" :-)
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Just to be clear, 7% of Apple's global power is still dirty and they have not made any public commitment to bring that down any further. Google is a much much larger energy consumer, has been carbon neutral since 2007, and is going to use 100% renewables globally within the next year. Also, Google made its energy company play back in 2010. Apple made theirs in 2016.
Too bad Google's founders fly all over the world on private jets, doing far more damage than these measures prevent. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_impact_of_aviati...
But the energy used, carbon emitted, is fairly small for the 1000 or so flights they take relative to the aggregate benefit they're making by buying so much "cleaner" power.
You really ought consider the relative perspective, I don't think their 757 carbon impact compares to the output of a 5MW data center running 24/7.
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"using" is a complicated word. If you don't like the usual way "using renewable energy" is used for electricity, by all means campaign against it, but there's nothing special about Google or this press release for this usage... and the New York Times article this discussion is about is quite clear.
That's not the "usual way" it's used. If I want to use solar power for my home, I don't contribute to a fund building solar panels on a different continent and claim I'm "using renewable energy". However, that's exactly what google is doing here.
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It's such a ridiculous statement, too. With his logic this guy would have to buy the cow that makes the milk he drinks in his coffee...
It is less ridiculous than you make it out to be. Nobody forces you to buy a cow to put milk on your cofee, but if you go around offering "organic capuccinos" for sale, your customers could normally expect you to either milk the grass fed cow yourself or, more likely, purchase your milk from a certified provider that does so. They certainly don't expect you to claim that since you make a donation to some Amish charit…
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You can predict the supply of wind, as an average over a long enough period of time, much more easily than you can predict the supply of oil.
"You can predict the supply of wind, as an average over a long enough period of time, much more easily than you can predict the supply of oil." Over the long haul, yes, but in real-time - no. And electricity prices to fluctuate a lot over days, weeks etc.. But indicating that 'price stability' is a point for green is not really fair, when it's almost always going to be considerably more expensive. Knowing that someth…
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Too bad Google's founders fly all over the world on private jets, doing far more damage than these measures prevent. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_impact_of_aviati...
Now you're just being silly. Yes, I'm sure they enjoy a luxurious transport and it would be more efficient for them to walk or take a rowboat or fly commercial. But the energy used, carbon emitted, is fairly small for the 1000 or so flights they take relative to the aggregate benefit they're making by buying so much "cleaner" power. You really ought consider the relative perspective, I don't think their 757 carbon im…
"A Boeing 747 jet has an average power consumption of 140 megawatts."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orders_of_magnitude_(power)
You can use this link to see San Francisco's power usage in 2015: http://ecdms.energy.ca.gov/elecbycounty.aspx
It was almost exactly 140 megawatts/hour * 24 hours * 365 days.
I highly doubt Google's worldwide data centers use more power than all of SF.
So, not silly!
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Now you're just being silly. Yes, I'm sure they enjoy a luxurious transport and it would be more efficient for them to walk or take a rowboat or fly commercial. But the energy used, carbon emitted, is fairly small for the 1000 or so flights they take relative to the aggregate benefit they're making by buying so much "cleaner" power. You really ought consider the relative perspective, I don't think their 757 carbon im…
A 747 in the air consumes more power than every single home in San Francisco. "A Boeing 747 jet has an average power consumption of 140 megawatts." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orders_of_magnitude_(power) You can use this link to see San Francisco's power usage in 2015: http://ecdms.energy.ca.gov/elecbycounty.aspx It was almost exactly 140 megawatts/hour * 24 hours * 365 days. I highly doubt Google's worldwide data…