Interview: Google’s Green Energy Czar

  • Bill Weihl is currently working on clean energy at Google. Before joining Google in early 2006, he was CTO at Akamai Technologies. (Photo courtesy of Google)

Chances are that you’ve visited the
website google.com. Google is
not only a leader in online tech, but
it’s also investing in high-tech
alternative energy, especially different
kinds of solar power. Lester Graham
talked with Google’s Green Energy
Czar – yes, that’s his real title – Bill
Weihl. His job is not only
to make Google more energy efficient,
but to investigate and invest in new,
cleaner energy use and generation:

Transcript

Chances are that you’ve visited the
website google.com. Google is
not only a leader in online tech, but
it’s also investing in high-tech
alternative energy, especially different
kinds of solar power. Lester Graham
talked with Google’s Green Energy
Czar – yes, that’s his real title – Bill
Weihl. His job is not only
to make Google more energy efficient,
but to investigate and invest in new,
cleaner energy use and generation:

Lester Graham: Last year, a report indicated performing two Google searches from a desktop computer could generate about the same amount of carbon dioxide as boiling a kettle for a cup of tea. How true is that?

Bill Weihl: We think, as, in fact, does the scientist who was behind most of the data there, that that report was actually off – that you, in fact, could do several hundred Google searches, if not more, for the emissions that are involved in boiling enough water to make a cup of tea.

Graham: What is Google doing to reduce energy consumption, or, at least, reduce greenhouse gas emissions?

Weihl: We have cut our energy consumption in our data centers – data centers are the, you know, big facilities that contain lots and lots of servers. We have cut the energy usage in those facilities by over 50%.

Graham: Is there anything we can do so that when we do use Google we’re being as energy efficient as possible?

Weihl: If you’re buying a new computer, look for one that’s energy efficient. And in the US that means look for one, at a minimum, that’s Energy Star compliant. Laptops also tend to be more energy efficient than desktops, in part because just to make the battery last long enough to be useful, they have to work really hard in designing them to make them energy efficient. The second thing you can do is when you’re not using your system, when it’s sitting there idle, you can set it so that it will go to sleep automatically, or manually, if for some reason it doesn’t go to sleep automatically, you can very easily tell it to go to sleep. That’s much more convenient, obviously, that shutting it down, having to reboot, and restart everything. And it uses about the same energy in stand-by mode as it does when it’s off – which is, in the order of 1 to 5 watts, far less than it uses when it’s just sitting there idle with the screen on and doing nothing.

Graham: Let’s look beyond the world of computers. Google has invested in research for energy efficiency in cars and electric generation. You have a program that’s called ‘R.E. is less than C’ or ‘renewable energy for less than the cost of coal.’ That’s ambitious. Is it realistic?

Weihl: First of all, it’s hugely ambitious. Secondly, I believe it is realistic. And third, I think it’s absolutely necessary. Today, coal is, by far, the cheapest form of energy, or electrical energy, that we consume, except perhaps for hydroelectric power, which is comparable in cost. But at least in this country, and most of the developed world, we’re not going to be building large amounts of new hydroelectric generating capacity. We’ve already dammed most of the rivers that are worth damming. We are, however, still building new coal plants. And coal is not only very cheap, but also it is, by far, the dirtiest, in terms of greenhouse gas emissions, of any of the sources of energy that we use. So I think it is necessary, in terms of dealing with the climate crisis that we are facing, to find a way to, over time, replace coal with cleaner sources of energy. And the only way, as a society, I think that we’re going to do that is if it makes economic sense. So that’s why we really started to focus on this initiative we call ‘R.E. less than C’ – to really try to drive innovation as rapidly as possible on the technology for generating renewable power to try to drive its cost down very quickly.

Graham: Bill Weihl is the Green Energy Czar for Google. Thanks very much for your time, I appreciate it.

Weihl: My pleasure. Thank you.

Related Links

Old LCD Screens Used for Medical Treatment

  • One research team recovered polyvinyl alcohol from the computer screens, which can be used in medicine (Photo courtesy of the National Cancer Institute)

Some researchers want to recycle
a chemical in computer screens to
use it for a medical treatment.
Shawn Allee reports:

Transcript

Some researchers want to recycle
a chemical in computer screens to
use it for a medical treatment.
Shawn Allee reports:

Most LCD computer screens contain toxic mercury. The European Union will soon mandate those screens be recycled rather than thrown away.

There are other metals and chemicals in the LCD screens that are not dangerous.

Dr. Avtar Matharu is with Britain’s University of York.

His research team recovered polyvinyl alcohol from the computer screens.

It’s used in spongy pads that deliver medicine.

“We can take out Polyvinyl alcohol from the front and back of an LCD screen. We can take what effectively would be a waste resource and potentially use it in a medical application.”

Matharu says getting polyvinyl alcohol out of LCD screens is expensive compared to making it from crude oil, but he says it could be another reason to recycle rather than throw them into a landfill.

For The Environment Report, I’m Shawn Allee.

Related Links

Greening Your Computer Usage

  • Follow the 'turn it off' advice and save, on average, $75 a year. (Source: Julo at Wikimedia Commons)

The average personal computer is a real energy guzzler. Only about half of the power it
uses makes videogames run, or music play, or run office software. The other half goes
up in wasted heat. Shawn Allee found out there are energy-saving PCs, but maybe using
the computer correctly can save the most power and money:

Transcript

The average personal computer is a real energy guzzler. Only about half of the power it
uses makes videogames run, or music play, or run office software. The other half goes
up in wasted heat. Shawn Allee found out there are energy-saving PCs, but maybe using
the computer correctly can save the most power and money:

I want a peek at some energy-saving PCs, so I head to a Best Buy electronics store.


“We’re heading to the computers.”

“Yes.”

I’m with a store manager. He wants me to use his first name, Tim.

Shawn: “When people come to the store, what’s usually the thing they’re asking
about or looking for in their PC?”

Tim: “First thing they look for is memory and hard drive space, that’s pretty much
it, and price.”

Shawn: “So it’s like, what can this thing do, and how much is this gonna cost me?”

Tim: “Exactly.”

Shawn: “How often is it the case someone comes in and says, Tim, which one saves
the most energy?”

Tim: “I have never heard that question asked.”

Shawn: “How long you been doing this?”

Tim: “I’ve been with Best Buy for five years.”

And you know, when I ask shoppers about energy consumption and computers, I just get
blank stares.

Well, Tim’s got several computers that have thumb-sized Energy Star labels.

Energy Star rated computers cut energy use by a third, and they usually cost the same as
comparable models.

This can save an average user maybe $25 a year in energy costs.

There are people who say that’s not enough.

You can actually save three times that by using PCs right.

One guy making this case is Pat Tiernan. He directs the Climate Savers Computing
Initiative, a computer industry group.

Tiernan says no matter how you get a PC – new or hand-me down …

“Make sure power management settings are aggressively set.”

Those are in the computer’s control panel settings.

Tiernan wants people to give power-settings the once-over, just to make certain the
computer can detect when you’re not using it.

“It puts it into a lower energy state like sleep mode.”

That’s if you don’t use the computer for fifteen minutes.

That’s the biggest energy saver.

Tiernan’s next tip is to simply turn off the machine when you’re not using it.

“It’s funny to me, people don’t just leave their cars on when they’re done with them,
right? They don’t leave them running in the garage or on the street. Yet, most
people in the U.S. leave their devices on in one form or another.”

Now, Tiernan says, there’s turning off a machine and there’s really turning off a machine.

“Even though you’ve turned many devices off on your household doesn’t mean
they’re not using power.”

Tiernan says computers always sip a little electricity out of your wall socket.

Printers, computer speakers and monitors can, too.

“Put your devices on a power strip. Flip that switch off and you’ll be doing yourself
and the environment a benefit.”

Now, there are critics of turning off your PC.

Shawn: “I have heard in the past that turning your desktop on and off again is hard
on your hard drive, though.”

Tiernan: “Well, a hard drive is and spinning up and spinning down throughout its
entire use. Does it put added wear on your hard drive? It really depends. Depending
on what you have loaded on it, your disk may be spinning up and down anyway, so
there’s a good argument to be made that turning it shutting it down for 8 hours that
you sleep may be better.”

So, what’s the bottom line if you follow Tiernan’s ‘turn it off’ advice for your PC?

On average, you could save $75 a year.

You can save even more if you use an Energy Star model.

But Tiernan says cutting power doesn’t just help your bottom line.

He says there’re more than a billion PCs on the market.

Cutting their power use can take a bite out of climate change.

For The Environment Report, I’m Shawn Allee.

Related Links

Solar-Powered Backpacks

Companies are starting to add solar panels to everything from portable electronics to the
bags we use to carry those gadgets around in. Brad Linder reports on the latest trend in
portable solar power:

Transcript

Companies are starting to add solar panels to everything from portable electronics to the
bags we use to carry those gadgets around in. Brad Linder reports on the latest trend in
portable solar power:


Voltaic Systems sells solar powered backpacks and messenger bags. Each bag has a solar
panel on the outside that can charge gadgets such as cell phones and MP3 players. It can
also charge an internal battery so you have electricity even when there’s no sun. But CEO
Shayne McQuade says the solar panels are often enough:


“We’ve got 4 watts of solar power on the outside of the bag, and it’s probably 3, 4 times
as much as most little solar chargers have. And what that means is you can basically just
plug it straight into the panel, stand in the sun, and make a phone call.”


Voltaic Systems’s bags cost between 200 and 250 dollars. The company admits that’s far
more than a typical backpack. Voltaic Systems is also preparing to launch its
first laptop case this spring.


For the Environment Report, I’m Brad Linder.

Related Links

A Better Battery for Hybrids

A US company has a new contract to work on batteries that many people hope will power the next generation of hybrid vehicles. The GLRC’s Chuck Quirmbach reports:

Transcript

A US company has a new contract to work on batteries that many people hope will power
the next generation of hybrid vehicles. The GLRC’s Chuck Quirmbach reports:


Lithium-ion batteries are used in some cell phones, laptop computers and other products.
US automakers and the Energy Department have just given Johnson Controls and a
French firm a two year contract.


They want to work on getting lithium-ion batteries in hybrid vehicles. Johnson controls
will try to improve battery power in low temperatures, reduce manufacturing
costs, and boost safety. Project director Karen Bauer says the batteries hold promise:


“Lithium is gonna be overall a lighter weight solution, so improved fuel economy. And
in addition, lithium is really an enabler to the plug-in hybrid electric vehicles that are
getting a lot of press today.”


But Bauer says it might may take five years before the batteries are ready to use in cars.


For the GLRC, I’m Chuck Quirmbach.

Related Links