Google proposes “Clean energy 2030”
A Google analysis, led by Jeffery Greenblatt, suggests a potential path to weaning the US off coal and oil for electricity generation by 2030 (with some remaining use of natural gas as well as nuclear), and cutting oil use for cars by 40%.
Google says it aims to stimulate debate and that now, with the US election coming up, is “an opportune, perhaps unprecedented, moment to move from plan to action.”
Google has identified three main focus areas to achieve the goals set out in its report
1. Reduce demand by doing more with less
The first step is to look at energy efficiency. Google started with looking at its own buildings and identified US$5 million in building efficiency investments with a 2.5 year payback. It has also designed its own data centres to run more efficiently.
Last year, Bill Weihl, Google’s Green Energy Czar, worked with industry partners to create the Climate Savers Computing Initiative to raise energy efficiency standards for personal computers and servers. These standards could cut energy consumption by the equivalent of 10-20 coal-fired power plants by 2010.
Google also says the US Government can have a big impact on achieving greater efficiency. California’s aggressive building codes, efficiency standards and utility programs have helped the state keep per-capita energy use flat for years, while consumption in much of the rest of the country has grown significantly. Enacting similar policies at the national level would help even more, according to the search engine giant. Read more
