Wind Power To Fuel Data Centers For Google

Google Inc’s energy unit has entered into a deal to buy wind power from NextEra Energy Inc for the next 20 years to power data centers.

The deal comes less than three months after the giant Silicon Valley Internet search company invested $38.8 million in two wind farms in North Dakota, developed by NextEra Energy Resources, that generate enough energy to power more than 55,000 homes.

Google Energy LLC will begin buying wind power from July 30 from NextEra’s facility in Iowa at a predetermined rate, Urs Hoelzle, Google’s senior vice president of operations, said in a blog on Google’s website.

“Incorporating such a large amount of wind power into our portfolio is tricky, but this power is enough to supply several data centers,” Hoelzle added.

Google has pushed ahead in addressing climate change issues as a philanthropic effort through its Google.org arm.

The often-quirky company said in late 2007 that it would invest in companies and do research of its own to produce affordable renewable energy — at a price less than burning coal — within a few years.

The company’s Google Energy unit, formed in December, allows the company to buy large volumes of renewable energy from the wholesale power market.

(Reporting by Poornima Gupta, editing by Gerald E. McCormick)

Green Energy Technology Sources – Advantages And Disadvantages

What are the Advantages and Disadvantages of Using Green Energy Technology Sources?

Today, we are now aware of the effects of global warming. Fortunately, it’s not too late and we can still change which is why many are pushing for green energy technology sources.

The advantage of using green energy sources is that it is clean so it does not emit anything harmful into the air which has an impact on the environment. It is also renewable which means we will never run out of it unlike oil which is expected to dry up in a decade or so.

Although green energy technology facilities are expensive to build, it requires less maintenance so you don’t have to shell out a lot of money to operate it.

It can also bring economic benefits to certain areas even boost tourism.

While these sound good, there are some who say that there are disadvantages to using such green energy technology.

While green energy sources can produce electricity, how much it can generate is not consistent. This is because we have no control of the weather so if a certain area relies on solar energy and there is a weather disturbance, it will not be able to convert sunlight into electricity.

Building these facilities also requires a lot of land so we may have to cut on farmland which is what many are concerned about if more wind turbines are to be put up.

Another disadvantage is the fact that some of the green energy sources cannot be installed in certain areas of the planet. For instance, wave energy can only be utilized if the waves coming from the ocean reach at least 16 feet. The use geothermal energy can only be done in geologically unstable parts of the planet.

But if you look at such arguments, places that cannot use one form of green energy technology can be substituted for another. If wind turbines need more space, they can be installed near the coast instead of putting these on land. A study shows that you can generate more electricity while these are placed out in the ocean water.

While the weather is something we cannot control, it is not everyday that there is a weather disturbance so this too is not a big concern. If solar energy is being used and the sun is covered, the emergency generators will be activated and use up the energy that was stored from previously sunny days.

The point is that there are ways around the arguments put up by certain individuals who discourage the use of green energy sources. In fact, research is ongoing to try and harness other means to generate the power we need.

A very good example of this is called ocean thermal energy. Power is generated by harnessing the different temperatures in the water. It is currently being used on a small scale both in Japan and Hawaii however if may have a lot promise.

In the US, only 7% of green energy sources are used nationally. This was much higher 11 years ago. In order not to have to worry about the cost of oil or its abundance, we have to invest more in this clean green energy technology.

We can get it from green energy sources such as biomass, biodiesel, geothermal, solar, water and the wind. These are things we have all around us and all it takes is for someone to harness it instead of relying on traditional non-renewable means to produce energy.