Internet search giant Google is the largest corporate installer of solar power, and company officials say they want to use more renewables in the future.
According to this article on C|Net.com, Robyn Beavers, the director of environmental programs at Google, says they intend to use renewable energy sources for 50 megawatts of electricity for its operations by 2012:
Beavers spoke at the Conference on Clean Energy here on Monday where she outlined a number of initiatives that Google participates in aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Those include the 1.6 megawatt solar installation at its corporate headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. In addition to panels on building roofs, Google has constructed a car port with solar panels as a roof, under which people can charge up plug-in hybrids.
Asked whether Google was considering wind power, Beavers said she couldn’t say. But she didn’t leave much doubt that all forms of renewable energy are actively under consideration.
“Wind, solar, geothermal, fuel cells–you name it, we’re looking into it,” she said.
Google officials say their investment in solar will pay for itself in seven and a half years. They’ve already dropped 30 percent of their consumption from the grid.