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Plug-ins and PV at Googleplex & the search for RE

It’s been ranked the most powerful brand in the world, as well as the best company to work for in America. Google doesn’t do much in a small way. After all, they’re the most visited website on the Internet, meaning that their servers process about 1 petabyte of user-generated data every hour.

This bigness doesn’t mean they ignore the little guy. They have an official unofficial slogan of “Don’t Be Evil“. And in 2004, the company set aside 1 billion dollars to start the non-profit Google.org aimed at creating awareness about climate change, public health and poverty.

They may have all the best intentions- they helped start Climate Savers Computing-, but their size and energy demands make it difficult for them to top the lists regarding the environment. In Newsweek’s Green Rankings of America’s 500 largest corporations for 2009, they were ranked number 79. “Huge servers are heavy on electricity demand,” explained the magazine. “But the company known for innovation is heavily promoting sources of renewable energy and use of electric vehicles; also purchases offsets. Does not yet report its GHG [Greenhouse Gas] emissions, however.”

Google is actively trying to cut energy demands of their servers and as company spokeman Jamie Yood explained to us, “Right now we think we have the most efficient data centers in the world.” And at google.org they’re continuing their battle against climate change by both promoting plug-in vehicles and by searching for the renewable that will complete the equation RE<C, that is, renewable energy cheaper than coal.

In this video, we visit the Googleplex- Google’s headquarters in Mountain View (California)- where Jamie Yood shows us the RechargeIT project’s plug-ins as well as the solar carports, their local food, a green building and all their bikes.