[LINK] Geo-thermal: clean, permanent electricity

Brendan Scott brendansweb at optusnet.com.au
Mon Jan 12 15:34:31 AEDT 2009


Eric Scheid wrote:
> On 12/1/09 10:15 AM, "Pilcher, Fred" <Fred.Pilcher at act.gov.au> wrote:
> 
>> Thank you both. While it's arguably been a little off-topic, it's been
>> fascinating and informative in the best traditions of LINK.
> 
> To get back on topic, perhaps they could instead route their water pipes
> through a different heat source.
> 
> I'm thinking google server farms...
> 
>> PERFORMING two Google searches from a desktop computer can generate a similar
>> amount of carbon dioxide to boiling the kettle for a cup of tea.
>> While millions of people tap into Google without a thought for the
>> environment, a typical search generates about 7g of carbon dioxide. Boiling a
>> kettle generates about 15g.
> 
> <http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/business/story/0,28124,24900863-501801
> 2,00.html>

Presumably the bulk of this is the indexing rather than the search?  If search volumes halved, I assume the power usage at google would drop by less than half. 

Brendan 




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