Google: Powered By The Sun

by babblingdweeb | June 20, 2007 at 10:26 am

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That headline might be misleading, since Google Inc has been solar since October 2006. However, many people have no idea just how much solar power Google Inc is producing. Just how much solar power and how large is the project?

Soon we plan to begin installation of 1.6 megawatts of solar photovoltaic panels at our Mountain View campus. This project will be the largest solar installation on any corporate campus in the U.S., and we think it's one of the largest on any corporate site in the world. The panels will cover the roofs of the four main buildings of the Googleplex, and also those of two additional buildings across the street. There will also be a portion of this installation on new solar panel support structures in a few parking lots. The amount of electricity that will be generated is equivalent to powering about 1,000 average California homes. We’ll use that electricity to power several of our Mountain View office facilities, offsetting approximately 30% of our peak electricity consumption at those buildings.

Google has completed 90% of this project and so far it seems to be working quite well! Google has a status page that shows just how much power that have generated...in the past 24 hours they created 9,904kw hours.

What does that equate to?