December 10th, 2007
Google shows real-time solar power statistics
Google has been gathering information about the power collected through their array of solar panels. Last October, Google installed hundreds of panels on the Googleplex in Mountain View.
If you are wondering how much power is actually generated in a given day, Google provides a few examples. Based on the 644 kilowatt-hours of electricity produced today at the ‘plex, you can power:
- 402 diswasher cycles
- 1373 hairdryers for 15 minutes
- 536 coffee makers for an hour
- 2683 alarm clocks for 24 hours
- 234 loads of laundry
- 5366 hours of flat screen TV watching
Is it me, or does 536 coffee makers for an hour seem pretty low? If you consider the Googleplex has about 250 coffee machines on campus (~20 buildings, ~2 floors each, ~2 micro kitchens per floor, ~3 coffee makers per kitchen), 2 hours of usage will suck up all the juice produced by the solar panels in a day.
I guess it’s going to a good cause though — programmers can efficiently transform caffeine into lines of code.
Garett Rogers is employed as a programmer for iQmetrix, which specializes in retail management software for the wireless industry.
See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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