Summarised by Joe Warr

Google - California The Google corporation has a large office complex based in central California. On top of the “eight buildings at the centre of the Googleplex” (“Greening of Google”, 2007) sit 9212 solar panels, angled directly south to produce maximum energy. “Google’s solar example”, (2008) Googleplex

Solar energy On a typical day the Googleplex solar panels will produce “9000 kilowatt-hours of electricity” (“Greening of Google”, 2007). However when this article was written the connection of the whole complex had not been completed. When it was finished at the end of 2007 the panels produced “1.6 megawatts of electricity” (“Greening of Google”, 2007). This will in turn provide 30% of the power for the Google offices. Solar power flow chart “Solar Power System”, (2009)

Worldwide comparison In North America the Google corporation has the largest installation of solar panels. However in comparison Google “isn’t even in the worldwide top 10” (“Greening of Google”, 2007). The top countries include Germany, Japan, Spain and Holland. Many of these installations are situated on factory roofs. Nonetheless numerous other American companies are competing to construct larger solar panel complexes than Google. Rooftop installation “Duke Power”, (2009)

U.S.A. solar panel market The North American solar panel market grew by 40% in Also California (mainly due to the increase of corporate based rooftop solar panels) became the second fastest growing market worldwide. As well as America, Spain’s solar panel market increased considerably but by 100%. The German market overall installed more solar panels, however their market did not increase as much due to the large solar infrastructure already existing.

Corporate solar panel installations As previously mentioned, many other leading businesses in different product areas, are also constructing vast solar panel complexes in order to try and utilise the need for an increase in renewable energy. British supermarket Tesco are planning on building a “2- MW solar installation at an office complex in northern California” (“Greening of Google”, 2007) Tesco solar installation “Tesco USA” (2007)

The effects of solar power on Google It is evident that the price of an installation as large as Google’s does not come at a cheap price. Although Google wont give an exact figure they have determined it will take “five to seven years”(“Greening of Google”, 2007) for the installation to pay for itself. Added to the cost of the panels themselves, Google used the best inverters to convert the energy collected into electricity to be used around Googleplex. These inverters were of such a high standard that the energy lost through conversion was minimal, due to a high conversion efficiency rate. Google logo “Google logo” (2009)

References Sandra Upson. (2007). Greening of Google. Retrieved 25 th November, 2009, from Google’s solar example. (2008). Retrieved 25 th November, 2009, from Solar Power System. (2009). Retrieved 25 th November, 2009, from Duke Power. (2009). Retrieved 5 th December, 2009, from solar-generation.php Tesco USA. (2007). Retrieved 5 th December, 2009, from solar-roof/ Google Logo. (2009). Retrieved 5 th December 2009, from

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