Wonderful 3 G's: Google, GE and Green Energy

In a fear-filled 24-hour news cycle, it's necessary to break away from all that negativity and read about some positive news. As you know, there are some very smart people in our country doing some great things and we need to hear more about them...especially these days.

There are many green energy initiatives taking place. I recently read about a particularly interesting effort that I think you'll find interesting too. Did you know that Google is investing a lot of money - in the millions - to change the country’s energy infrastructure more into the likes of the Internet, making energy decentralized and distributed, and possibly saving you and I lots of money?

Partnered with GE in many green initiatives, the company envisions a smart electric grid that would be controlled and monitored by a vast computer network that would determine prices based on real-time supply and demand. If this happens, it will change the way that you and I use and pay for electricity.

For example: Suppose the hot and humid summer months in Georgia creates a spike in electricity usage, and therefore prices. Instead of automatically being hit with higher energy prices, you'll have a device with a user-friendly interface that allows you to click on an icon and power down several of your appliances. GE already has a smart-grid lab that's working out the details of such a scenario. Or how about having a wireless system in your home, car, etc., that would automatically shut down appliances and devices if prices hit certain preset levels? In addition to the above, there's hope that you'll be able to select your own energy plans that are more customized to your needs.

Google's motivation to reduce its energy costs is commendable. And after getting hit with some pretty high electric bills myself during the summer, I'll say I'm pretty giddy about such ideas. Maybe we can find ways to heal the planet and add a little more money in our wallets.

Source: http://www.examiner.com/x-2938-Atlanta-Web-Examiner~y2009m2d21-Hip-Hip-Hooray-for-the-Gs--Google-GE-and-Green-Energy
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Everex gPC - Product Review

When the Everex gPC ($199 direct, without monitor) was announced, it received some fanfare as a bargain-subbasement "green" Linux-based PC, or the (quite unofficial) "Google PC," available at your local Wal-Mart. Everex, a firm known for producing cheap laptops for big-box stores, supposedly designed it for nontechnical yet Web-savvy users who like to go on the Web to see their friends' pages on social-networking sites or YouTube videos. Google and Google Apps are a central part of the gPC's raison, but thus far the gPC is not a Google-licensed product. "G" also stands for green, since the gPC uses a low-powered VIA C7 processor. But as with the Google aspect, gPC's energy-efficient status is to some extent smoke and mirrors, as I'll explain later. The gPC does have a green-colored theme and start-up screen, so it has that much going for it. But the good news ends there.

Hardware-wise, the gPC is true to the adage "you get what you pay for," and at least in this case, no compliment is intended. $199 buys you a low-power, relatively low-performing VIA C7-D processor, 512MB of memory, a 80GB hard drive (much more than the 4GB in a Zonbu or Eee PC), and a DVD-ROM/CD-RW combo drive. While this is enough to run Ubuntu Linux, it is not going to run it speedily. The upside is that the processor consumes only 20W peak by itself, and during use, the PC did keep its overall power usage to the 20W-to-50W range. Add an LCD monitor and power consumption can go above 80W, but this isn't bad considering that a more powerful business PC marketed as energy-efficient, such as the HP rp5700, can use around 50W at idle by itself. More power-hungry gaming or multimedia desktops and large-screen monitors can consume upward of 500W to 1KW. Some nits here: The setup sheet rightly notes that, for the PC to fully function, you need a broadband Internet connection with an Ethernet cable. The picture on the setup sheet, however, points to the included modem (probably a normal 56K fax modem, but nonfunctioning; the gOS team is working on a modem driver), and the close-up shows a modem cable, not an Ethernet cable.
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Google Going Green in a Big Way

The world's best-known Internet company on Tuesday announced a far-reaching initiative to stimulate the development of solar and other renewable energy sources.

As part of the program, Google Inc. and its nonprofit foundation, Google.org, has earmarked tens of millions of dollars to either spend on research and development or to invest in renewable energy in 2008. In the longer term, it also plans to build solar power plants, invest in more renewable energy companies, and sell or license any energy-related technologies it develops to other companies.

In part, Google wants to find cheaper, more reliable power to run the giant, energy-sucking computer data centers it operates or plans to open in more than 25 locations around the world, including Atlanta, North and South Carolina, Oklahoma and Oregon.

But Google co-founder Larry Page said the company's ambitions extend far beyond its own business.

"Just providing energy for Google is not really enough of a goal," Page said in a conference call with reporters. "We really want to provide energy that's cheap enough that it can replace significant amounts of the energy that (is) used today."

Specifically, Google wants to develop technology to make solar and other energy sources less expensive than coal, which currently produces more than 40 percent of the country's electricity, but using it releases large amounts of climate-warming gases into the atmosphere.

Google officials decline to say just how much power its data centers use to run its vast Internet search site and its other businesses.

But by some estimates, the company spends more than $2 million per month on electricity to power its network of an estimated 450,000 computer servers.

Google has more than just cost-cutting and altruism in mind, however.

Page said the company expects to see returns "on a reasonable time scale" from its energy investments, either in the form of higher stock prices of the companies it invests in, in savings from producing its own power, or from the sale or licensing of solar and other technologies it develops.

Google, of course, isn't the only company that sees greenbacks in going green.

Atlanta media mogul Ted Turner, who has made big investments in solar energy lately, recently called the solar business "the greatest business opportunity in the history of humanity."
Src: http://www.ajc.com/business/content/business/stories/2007/11/27/Google_1128.html
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