Wind Farm Energy To Power Google For 20 Years

Mashable is reporting that Google has just signed a contract with an Iowa wind farm to purchase clean energy at a set rate for the next 20 years.

 

This move is in keeping with Google’s strong environmental stance; with specific regard to energy consumption and wind-generated energy, the company has been pushing PowerMeter and has invested $38 million in wind farms this year alone.

 

Google gained the ability to buy and sell electricity like any other public utility in February in order to reach its goals for carbon neutrality and more efficient energy use in its expansive data centers. This Power Purchase Agreement is the first deal brokered under the guise of Google Energy.

 

Official Google blog:

“On July 30 we will begin purchasing the clean energy from 114 megawatts of wind generation at the NextEra Energy Resources Story County II facility in Iowa at a predetermined rate for 20 years… This power is enough to supply several data centers. While we are happy to be purchasing renewable energy as part of our environmental commitment, this is also a structure that makes long term financial sense for Google. Through the long term purchase of renewable energy at a predetermined price, we’re partially protecting ourselves against future increases in power prices. This is a case where buying green makes business sense.”

 

Do you think Google is doing enough to stay green?

 

Read the full post at Mashable.

Posted via email from Neville's Blog

Super Battery: Most Powerful Non-Nuclear Energy Storage Ever

The material used to make the "Super Battery" is xenon difluoride (XeF₂), a white crystal primarily used to etch silicon conductors. The crystal was placed in a diamond anvil cell, a tiny device that measures only two inches by three inches. The cell uses two tiny diamond anvils (as you might expect, considering its name) to produce incredibly high pressures in tiny, contained spaces.

 

Normally, the molecules in xenon difluoride stay relatively far apart. The squeezing process the crystals underwent in the diamond anvil cell forced the molecules closer and closer together. At first, the squeezing caused the crystal to become a two-dimensional semiconductor, but then something even more remarkable happened.

 

When the pressure reached a million atmospheres, similar to the pressure found halfway to the center of the Earth, the molecules formed 3D metallic "network structures", which forced all the mechanical energy of the compression process to be stored as chemical energy within the molecular bonds. At a million atmospheres, that's a whole lot of stored energy.

 

Read the full post at Gizmodo.

Posted via email from Neville's Blog