Sustainable IT | Ted Samson » TAG: Google

February 11, 2008 | Comments: (0)

MS-Yahoo marriage could drive green SaaS innovation

TAGS: Google, Microsoft, SaaS (software as a service), Yahoo

I've been out of the country for over a week, and thus I'm a bit late to the Microsoft-Yahoo party. But I saw that The New York Times had an interesting take on the subject that spoke to my green-tech sensibilities. The idea is, Redmond's not just seeking a bigger piece of the savory search pie; it's looking to build on Yahoo's technology platform and expansive user base to advance its Web-based software strategy and compete against Google Apps.

I'm certainly a firm believer in the SaaS model. For the end-user, it means having the convenience of creating, editing, and sharing documents from anywhere you can get online. For an IT admin, it means fewer headaches maintaining software on user systems. And from a green IT perspective, it means users can get by with less expensive, less resource-intensive machines, since most of the processing and storage is being taken care of on the back end. That means companies get to spend less money on replacing and powering machines.

As it stands, Google has been making rapid advancements in the world of SaaS (software as a service), having just recently unveiled a Team Edition of its Internet-based productivity suite. According to IDG News Services, more than 500,000 organizations have signed up for Google Apps thus far.

Microsoft, meanwhile, hasn't made much progress on the Web-software front. Yes, it has its Office Live Workspace program (currently in beta), but that's really just an extension of the processor-hungry, hard-drive-bound version of Office. Yet surely the company can't ignore the success Google is enjoying with Google Apps, which, again, is likely figuring in to its desire to buy up Yahoo.

The future of SaaS certainly doesn't hinge on Microsoft's ability to snag Yahoo. If it does happen, though, I expect we'll see some real Web-app innovation thanks to the combined mindshare of the two companies. In the meantime, I'm curious whether Microsoft, or Yahoo, for that matter, will show us anything that will compete with Google Apps.

Ted Samson is a senior analyst at InfoWorld and author of the Sustainable IT blog. Subscribe to his free weekly Green Tech newsletter.

Posted by Ted Samson on February 11, 2008 02:08 PM

December 10, 2007 | Comments: (0)

A view to Google's solar power

TAGS: Google, Solar power

Google's headquarters, the Googleplex, has long been an architecturally pretty impressive building, but with the addition of 9,000-plus solar panels, it looks all the cooler. The search behemoth has posted pics of the installation on its Solar Panel Project Web site , brought to my attention by the folks over at TreeHugger.

"This installation is projected to produce enough electricity for approximately 1,000 California homes or 30-percent of Google's peak electricity demand in our solar powered buildings at our Mountain View, Calif. headquarters," Google reports.

Google also received a tidy sum in incentives from PG&E for its installation: $4.5 million.

As an interesting, though perhaps gimmicky, addition: Google reports how many kilowatt-hours of energy the panels supply over a 24-hour period, a seven-day period, and since the installation in June of this year.

For example, as I write this, for example, Google reports that it's generate 675 kilowatt-hours in the past 24 hours -- enough to power 5,625 hours of flat screen TV watching or 2,812 alarm clocks for 24 hours. Those numbers may be off, though, as the site reports the monitoring system seems to be having some problems right now.

Ted Samson is a senior analyst at InfoWorld and writer of the Sustainable IT blog. Subscribe to his free weekly Green Tech newsletter.

Posted by Ted Samson on December 10, 2007 12:20 PM

November 28, 2007 | Comments: (0)

Google to invest millions in seeding green energy

TAGS: Alternative energy, Google, Solar power, Wind power

In a move with clear environmental and business benefits, Google has announced plans to pour tens of millions of dollars next year into research and development and related investments in renewable energy. The company also plans to invest hundreds of millions of greenbacks in breakthrough renewable energy projects that have a tangible financial ROI.

Dubbed RE < C (which presumably stands for "renewable energy costs less than coal-generated energy"), the initiative initially will focus on advanced solar thermal power, wind power technologies, enhanced geothermal systems and other potential breakthrough technologies.

"Our goal is to produce one gigawatt of renewable energy capacity that is cheaper than coal. We are optimistic this can be done in years, not decades," said Larry Page, Google co-founder and president of products

Coal is used to supply 40 percent of the energy in the world, according to Google. Coal-spawned energy also results in the production of greenhouse-gas emissions. Renewable energy can reduce the amount of GHGs spewed out each year.

As part of the RE < C, Google will work with various organizations in the renewable energy field, including companies, R&D laboratories, and universities. Among them, there's eSolar, a Pasadena, Calif.-based company specializing in solar thermal power which replaces the fuel in a traditional power plant with heat produced from solar energy.

There's also Makani Power, located in Alameda, Calif. The company is developing high-altitude wind-energy extraction technologies aimed at harnessing the most powerful wind resources.

Sergey Brin, Google co-founder and president of technology, cited by both the economic and environmental benefits of fostering renewable energy sources: "Cheap renewable energy is not only critical for the environment but also vital for economic development in many places where there is limited affordable energy of any kind."

Of course, "places in the world where affordable energy is sparse" aren't the only ones to benefit from emerging alternative-energy technologies. As with other companies that have power-hungry operations and are investing in renewable energy, Google's move ties in to its own long-term sustainability. Being able to reduce power bills and to generate its own electricity results in more resources to expand.

Posted by Ted Samson on November 28, 2007 09:06 AM

June 19, 2007 | Comments: (0)

Brazilian tribe hopes Google Earth can halt deforestation

TAGS: Google

Surui's hope capturing satellite images of devastation from illegal logging and mining will spur action

Some politicians have criticized Google Earth as a potential tool for terrorists. Privacy groups have raised alarms that it can be used as a tool for voyeurists and stalkers. But an Indian tribe in the Amazon hopes that Google Earth will help save rain forests, according to reports.

The Surui tribe in Brazil has called upon Google to "capture vivid images that could help stop loggers and miners from deforesting the jungle and digging for gold on its vast Amazon reservation," the Associated Press reports.

Currently, the tribe has no Internet access, but with time, the tribe's chief, Almir Narayamoga Surui, foresee "many of the 1,200 members of his Surui tribe using computers with satellite Internet connections and high-resolution images from Google Earth to police all corners of their 618,000-acre reservation," AP reports.

Surui hope that the images will provide visual proof to the Brazilian government that illegal logging and mining is taking place, spurring politicians to act. Additionally, he hopes that those performing the illegal operations will cut back, or stop, once they know they're being watched.

According to AP, Google Earth will attempt to purchase high-quality images of the region.

Posted by Ted Samson on June 19, 2007 02:29 PM

June 19, 2007 | Comments: (0)

Iowa tailors taxes to entice Google

TAGS: Google

Hawkeye State offers tax breaks in hopes of reaping long-term benefits from 2,000-acre server farm

Lured by special incentives, Google has announced plans to open a new $600 million data center in Council Bluffs, Iowa, according to reports. Whether it will be as green as the partially solar-powered Googleplex remains to be seen.

Google will use an existing building on a 55-acre plot of lands in the Council Bluffs; the server farmer could swell to cover 2,000 acres.

Iowa dangled some legislative carrots as incentive for the search behemoth to open shop in Iowa. According to reports, Iowa legislators have decided not to charge sales taxes on the utility bills for server farms, which will spell savings for Google, given the ever-increasing costs of running not only server hardware by the HVAC to keep the cool. Iowa is also waiving taxes on all computers Google will purchase.

Further, Google will reap a property tax break through 2024, according to reports, but it will plunk down about $65 million in property taxes over the next 15 years. Further, Google is expected to pay around $6 million in sales tax for building materials, state officials estimate.

Google will bring about 200 jobs to Iowa with an average salary of $50,000 to $60,000, according to different reports.

The Iowa data center will be situated newly expanded MidAmerican Energy electric-generating station. The expansion has increased the electric station's reliability and capacity to 790 megawatts, another reason Google picked the Corn State as the new home for its server farm.

Posted by Ted Samson on June 19, 2007 12:52 PM

June 19, 2007 | Comments: (0)

Google basks in $4.5 million solar-energy incentives

TAGS: Google, Solar power

Google flips the On switch for its 9,212 panel installation, demonstrates vehicle-to-grid technology

There's no doubt about it: Google is one power-hungry company. I'm speaking from an energy-consumption perspective, of course, and the company is take eco-friendly steps to sate that hunger.

Google today announced the completion of a 1.6 megawatt photovoltaic system at its Mountain View, Calif.-based Googleplex, a project that has reaped the search behemoth approximately $4.5 million in incentives from PG&E (Pacific Gas and Electric).

Google's solar installation is the largest on any corporate campus to date, generating enough electricity to power 1,000 homes. The company will use the energy to power of its several Mountain View facilities, "offsetting approximately 30 percent of the peak electricity consumption at those buildings," according to the announcement.

The announcement was made the same day that Google and PG&E demonstrated vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology, another plank in Google's green platform.

"Today's demonstration provides a glimpse of what we are calling the new energy economy," said Brad Whitcomb, vice president of customer products and services for PG&E. "Through our collaboration with Google, we are showing how the high-tech, transportation and energy sectors are intersecting to meet our country's growing energy needs and protect the environment."

V2G technology allows for the bi-directional sharing of electricity between electric vehicles and the electric power grid. The technology essentially transforms each vehicle into an energy storage system, thus increasing power reliability and the amount of renewable energy available to the grid during peak power usage.

PHEVs (plug-in electric hybrid vehicles) include additional battery capacity, which boost the vehicle's ability to run completely on electricity. Down the road, converted PHEVs could as a repository for excess solar energy that could be fed back into Google facilities during peak hours, according to the announcement.

Google's solar installation will boast 9,212 solar cell modules, manufactured by Sharp and capable of producing up to 208 watts of power each, according to reports.

PG&E is handing Google an incentive check for $4.5 million for the solar installation. The utility has interconnected more than 16,000 solar customers who generate more than 100 MWs of solar energy. Through the California Solar Initiative, PG&E will be able to provide almost $950 million in rebates over the next 10 years to help customers purchase their own solar systems.

For more information about about PG&E's incentive programs, go to pge.com.

For a peek at Google's solar installation, go here.

Posted by Ted Samson on June 19, 2007 12:01 PM