Google's Goals Include Carbon Neutrality
by EcoGeek.org on 01.18.07
An Google internal memo entitled "Big Goals and Directions," was recently leaked to the public. Amongst promises to expand advertising revenue another billion dollars, and to control spam in 20 different languages, Google also expounded on plans to increase its green power consumption to ten megawatts in the short term, and sees that as a step toward complete carbon neutrality.
Google searches stored copies of the entire internet millions of times daily, the hardware required to perform that amazing feat is not trivial. Google operates some 50,000 servers, each one consuming a good deal of power. Google has recently warned that the power consumed by servers is soon going to cost more than the machines themselves.
Estimates of Google's power consumption lie in the 20 to 30 megawatt range, so 10 megawatts of green energy is not an insignificant step toward carbon neutrality. Already, Google has 2 megawatts of solar online to help power its Mountain Valley complex, the Googleplex.
Where will the other eight megawatts come from? We're still waiting to see. ::Google Blogoscoped
Nice. So they'll be selling their private jet that uses 7000 gallons of fuel to go from coast to coast.
New York Times: "The best guess is that Google now has more than 450,000 servers spread over at least 25 locations around the world."
Google has way more than 50,000 servers... they don't publish numbers, but the last estimate I saw was in the 200,000 range, and that was, I dunno, a couple years ago? By now they're probably closing on half a million, I bet.