« What’s the Caramilk Secret? | Main | Are MacBooks Just Trendy? »
Google’s Hunger for Power
By Mark Evans | March 16, 2008
When it comes to the Internet’s growth, there’s a lot of talk about the digital divide, network neutrality, and the sharing phenomena (Facebook, Twitter, FriendFeed, etc.) but one thing that rarely attracts the spotlight is the more people who go online, the more energy that’s consumed.
After all, you’ve got tens of millions of computers and modems sucking up electricity, and thousands of data centers that need enormous amounts of electricity to power servers and cooling systems.
So, where does this power come from, and where are these data centers located? An interesting take on the need for power can be found in this month’s issue of Harpers, which looks at Google’s power needs, and some of the aggressive tactics it has taken to get what it needs to build new data centers everywhere from Washington state and Siberia to Dubai and Shanghai.
The articles succinctly goes a long way in explaining Google’s growing lobby presence in Washington, as well as its recent embrace of green energy. One eye-catching factoid from the article is that Google’s U.S. data centers consumed more power in 2006 than all of the television in the U.S.
(As a side note, try connecting a powerbar to your computing space, and then turning everything off when they’re not in use. You’ll be surprised by how much power you’ll save.)
Topics: Google |