After years of stony refusal to divulge its global power consumption, Google has now revealed that the company consumed more than two billion kilowatt hours of energy worldwide in 2010. That number includes energy chomped by servers in data centers all over the world, as well as energy required to keep the lights and refrigerators running at the Googleplex in Mountain View, Calif. The frank admission came Sept. 8 through a new section of its Going Green Website, where it typically informs and regales green IT buffs with its tales of solar and wind energy investments. The search engine provider, which also said it generated 1.46 million metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2), added this "Big Picture" section to provide more transparency around not only its power consumption, but the energy savings associated with its clean energy efforts. Please join eWEEK on this Big Picture tour.
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Going Green
This gorgeously designed Website is attractive to trackers of Google's clean power progress.
Energy Use, Carbon Footprint
Google's 2010 electricity consumption was 2,259,998 megawatt hours, or more than two billion kilowatt hours of energy use. The company's carbon footprint is also detailed in the graph.
Data Center
Rather than talk about how much power it uses, using this paper as a data point comparison, Google frames the discussion in how "little" power it uses—less than .01 percent of the world's power.
Servers
In this case, Google claims its servers use less energy to provide a user search, Gmail, YouTube and other Web service per month than leaving a light on for three hours.
Breaking It Down
Google's search power consumption stats compared to laptops, light bulbs and... orange juice.
Gmail, YouTube
Did you know that powering one minute of YouTube is equivalent to the energy people burn in 8 seconds? Now you do.
More on Gmail
Google provided a more detailed Gmail power consumption breakdown, touting how energy efficient, cloud-based messaging is compared to on-premise messaging systems, such as Microsoft Exchange.
How Google Goes Green
Google does a lot of home "greening," using solar panels, shuttles and electric chargers for electric-powered vehicles.
Clean Power
You also won't find another company that has invested nearly $800 million in solar, wind and sea power to curb energy costs.
Clean Power at Home
In fact, Google plans on elevating its clean power sourcing, from 30 percent in 2011 to 35 percent of its total in 2012.
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After years of stony refusal to divulge its global power consumption, Google has now revealed that the company consumed more than two billion kilowatt hours of energy worldwide in 2010. That number includes energy chomped by servers in data centers all over the world, as well as energy required to keep the lights and refrigerators running at the Googleplex in Mountain View, Calif. The frank admission came Sept. 8 through a new section of its Going Green Website, where it typically informs and regales green IT buffs with its tales of solar and wind energy investments. The search engine provider, which also said it generated 1.46 million metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2), added this "Big Picture" section to provide more transparency around not only its power consumption, but the energy savings associated with its clean energy efforts. Please join eWEEK on this Big Picture tour.