Grant KlingerAbdulrahman Maddi

Bill MillerTaylor Miller

What Google Means to Energy

• Google has invested $780 million in renewable energy generation and tech development

• Google boasts themselves as being a neutral carbon company, offsetting as much CO2 as they produce

• The G-mail system is said to be 80% more efficient than company in-house e-mail service

Outline- Google’s overall Carbon footprint calculation if all

of their energy was from power plants

- Google’s wind and solar offsets

- The things we don’t think about (What would the

world be like without Google)

- What is the carbon footprint of this project???

Assumptions - All the power is coming from coal power plant.

- Account for all of Google searchers, Gmail and

YouTube usage and all other Google applications.

- Average trip to the library is 1.5 miles each way.

- 70% of bituminous coal is Carbon.

- Everyone used Google to complete their project

Google CO2 Output• Google reports using 260 MW of energy • Efficiency of average coal power plant is 30%• chemical energy of power plant• Bituminous coal produces 2.32E10 J/ton coal

Google’s Wind Offset

• 30% of Google’s energy is predicted to be wind in

2011.

• )( CO2

• MW

Google’s Solar Offset• SolarCity project by Google is installing 10,000

solar systems predicted to produce 7 MWh per year each

• Per system

• Total

What if We Didn’t Have Google?

• .

• Assume only 25% of people would drive to the library if we didn’t have Google.

• (0.85)CO2

How Much Do Searches Save?

• Searches make up 12.5 MW of Google’s energy usage.

• 1.32E5 - 2.667E7= -2.64E7 CO2

• Google saves 26.4 Million metric tons of CO2 per year!

Google CO2 Emissions of EGEE

012 • 40 searches * 15 groups = 600 searches

• This project is producing almost half a pound of CO2 just from Google searches!!!

Differences• Calculated – Wind offset – Solar offset = Total • NewYork times report 1.5

• Compare to 26.4 Million metric tons per year saved

by not going to the library

Conclusion- Online activity is increasing significantly each

year.

- Google is pushing toward more renewable energy

sources.

- If Google didn’t pursue more efficient equipment

and methods CO2 footprint would DOUBLE.

- Google also contributes in the development of

renewable energy and technology.

- Yahoo doesn’t release their energy information.

References

• http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/09/technology/google-details-and-defends-its-use-of-electricity.html?_r=2

• http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/sep/08/google-carbon-footprint

• http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2011/09/google-reveals-carbon-footprint-renewable-energy-goals

• http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/14/google-solarcity-investment-home-solar_n_876574.html

• http://s3.amazonaws.com/greenwala-attachments/production/attachments/11543/slider/google-wind-power-north-dakota-photo.jpg?1272920831

Learn More:

• http://www.google.com/green/index.html

• http://www.youtube.com/user/googlegreen