Wednesday, 20 June 2007, 10:13 am Press Release: Google
Google announces investments in clean energy and green
technology
Paris, Tuesday 19 June: Google Inc. today set
out its strategy to help build a cleaner energy future. This
plan will enable the company to go carbon neutral by 2008
and help support environmental innovation that could
ultimately benefit everyone.
Key components of the
strategy include:
Maximising the efficiency of
Google's data centres, which account for most of the energy
it consumes. These use less than half the energy of standard
industry data centres - cutting the company's power
consumption by a factor of more than two;
Increasing Google's use of renewable energy. The company has
finished Phase 1 of a 1.6 megawatt (MW) solar panel at its
headquarters in Mountain View. Google is committed to
creating an additional 50 MWs of renewable energy generating
capacity by 2012 - enough to power 50,000 homes. The
company will also apply a shadow price for carbon when
buying power for its data centres to encourage the use of
cleaner energy;
Offsetting emissions that
cannot be eliminated directly.Google recognises that offsets
are an imperfect solution but believes they help finance
environmental improvements that would not otherwise happen.
In addition Google would rather invest in projects which
reduce global carbon emissions now, rather than waiting
until the company can eliminate its own entirely in the
future;
Leveraging its assets to make an impact
beyond the business. Google:
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Invests in innovative
projects like plug-in hybrid cars (plug-ins) in order to
make cleaner technologies commercially viable more
quickly;
Co-founded Climate Savers
Computing, an industry initiative to increase computer
efficiency and cut carbon emissions by 54 million tons a
year by 2010;
Enables users to inform and
engage the world on energy and climate change matters by
using products like Google Earth and Google
Transit;
Supports changes to public policy -
including the setting of energy efficiency and renewable
portfolio standards, price signals for greenhouse gas
emissions, and increased public spending on energy
efficiency and renewable R&D.
Eric
Schmidt, Chairman and Chief Executive of Google
said:
"Innovation goes to the heart of what Google does.
By investing in new technologies and by working in
partnership with others we can make a meaningful
contribution to the environment. This is just a start. We
are actively looking for more opportunities to help tackle
climate change."
Urs Hoelzle, Senior Vice President,
Operations and Google Fellow said: "Overall the Internet
is a relatively clean technology: sending an email or
downloading an album has less impact than posting a letter
or buying a CD. And by maximising our energy efficiency,
creating an additional 50 MWs of renewable energy generating
capacity and investing in innovative green technology Google
will help build a cleaner energy future."
Dr. Steve
Howard, Chief Executive of The Climate Group said:
"The
ominous threats posed by global warming demand bold,
imaginative and far-reaching action by every sector of the
economy. Google's commitment to invest in environmental
innovation, combined with their 'worldwide' reach, will
significantly help promote and accelerate international
action on climate change."
Carter Roberts, President of
the World Wildlife Fund in the US said:
"Google, not
surprisingly, innovates to address an issue that affects
almost every person, place and animal on the planet. In the
last quarter, the company put in place the single largest
solar installation of any US corporation, committed to
buying 50 MW of renewable energy and worked with WWF, Intel
and other industry leaders to develop and launch the Climate
Savers Computing Initiative to move carbon reductions
broadly through its
sector."
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