Google is solar powered (and other thoughts on corporate electricity)
by Eric Richard
A few months ago I wrote a posted called Google is also going solar powered.
Well, it no longer is in the future tense.
Google just turned on over 9,000 solar panels instantly becoming the largest corporate solar panel installation in the world.
What is amazing is that while these panels generate 1.6 MW of power, it still only powers 1/3 of their entire campus. That has to be some electric bill that they get!
On a side note, I learned something recently about how companies and municipalities buy energy that might point to why even more companies may follow Google down this route.
When you and I, the average citizen, buy our power, we do it on a metered basis. This means that we get charged for what we use and our electric bill is a direct function of our usage. If we cut our usage by 10%, our electric bill gets reduced by 10%.
However, for many large institutions, they will pay for the “peak capacity”. The basic idea here is that the electric company says, “The fact that we have to be able to have the capacity to produce enough energy to handle your peak load costs us money. Because of that, we are going to charge you for your peak load, not your total load.”
This has a couple of interesting side effects. Some good for us, some not so good.
One good effect that it has is that it gives these companies a huge incentive to cut their peak load. If they can find some way to reduce their peak, they can cut into their electric bill nicely.
Now, if you imagine the electricity usage of many of these companies, you can also imagine that peak load is likely to occur during the middle of the day when the sun is beating down and the A/C is running fast and furious. Well, the great news is that this is also when you will get peak production out of a solar panel.
So, it really starts to be a match made in heaven — the most effective period of the solar panel is the time that the company can most use the extra energy.
Now, the odd corollary to this is that it also means that there actually isn’t so much of a financial incentive for companies to save electricity in the off-peak hours. For example, turning off lights at night.
I have only heard about this second hand so hopefully I got this right and would appreciate anyone’s providing some more information about peak metering and how it might impact company’s thoughts on energy savings.
on June 21st, 2007 at 7:29 am
One other item that I should add on here. Google has also announced that they plan on being completely carbon neutral by this year.
Here are some more details on how they are going to accomplish this.
I know that Google’s informal motto is Don’t be Evil, but this is pretty amazing stuff.
on June 21st, 2007 at 8:48 pm
It is certainly true that solar power produces electricity precisely when it is needed the most (hot, sunny afternoons) and prices are highest. This is one of the biggest arguments in favor of solar, and also one of the biggest arguments why the intermittent nature of solar power is less of a problem than it appears at first. (Also, incidentally, this points to one criticism of wind energy.. the high pressure systems that lead to warm, clear days (and high electricity use) are also associated with calm days.)
However, I have not heard of businesses being charged on peak power. A quick search of a few utilities’ sites reveals that they charge businesses by the kwh (i.e., total usage) just as they do for residences. In some cases, the per-kwh rate does rise with usage (as is also the case in some residential areas), but its still not based solely on peak usage.
http://www.nstaronline.com/ss3/business/rates_tariffs/rates/rates.asp#B1
http://www.cwlp.com/Customer_service/Business/business_electric_rates.htm
Businesses with large power requirements (like Google) can possibly buy electricity directly on the spot market, and cut out the utility company middleman. Prices can be *a lot* higher on hot sunny days than other times. But it is still sold by the kwh.
I can’t rule out the possibility that some businesses pay based on peak usage, but I haven’t heard of that and can’t find anything to support it.
on June 28th, 2007 at 6:43 pm
It is certainly true that solar power produces electricity precisely when it is needed the most (hot, sunny afternoons) and prices are highest. This is one of the biggest arguments in favor of solar, and also one of the biggest arguments why the intermittent nature of solar power is less of a problem than it appears at first. (Also, incidentally, this points to one criticism of wind energy.. the high pressure systems that lead to warm, clear days (and high electricity use) are also associated with calm days.)
According to the research done for the Cape Wind Project, this criticism of wind energy may not be true, at least for off-shore turbines.
on June 28th, 2007 at 6:44 pm
Arghh… to clarify.. The first paragraph of my previous post is quoting Carl’s post. The second paragraph is my comment.
I hate the lack of a preview function…