Fresh Fuzz

Google’s Green Portfolio Just Shy Of 1 Billion

by michael December 21st, 2011 - No Comments »

 

Recently Google invested $94 million dollars in a solar panel farm in Sacramento, California. This recent purchase brings their total contributions towards clean energy to a whopping $915 million dollars.

Google assistant treasurer stated  “We believe investing in the renewable energy sector makes business sense and hope clean energy projects continue to attract new sources of capital to help the world move towards a more sustainable energy future”

This is great news for the city of Sacramento, being that the solar farm is contracted for the next 20 years, bringing clean renewable energy to thousands of homes and businesses in the SAC.

 

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Google’s Self Driving Car Crashes

by michael August 7th, 2011 - No Comments »

Google seems to have run into a snag when its infamous self-driving car crashed this week. Google is saying that the crash was human error and the car was in its normal driving mode with a driver behind the wheel.

Google’s self driving car requires a driver in the car at all times to take the controls if anything were to go wrong, evidently this precaution seemed to actually cause an accident, rather then prevent it.

The driverless cars that Google have created are amazing machines. They use radar, lasers and cameras to drive the car safely to its desired destination. Google is developing these cars to help with traffic and prevent accidents, this recent accident proves that human error is a problematic factor in everyday driving.

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Google+Nasa= Green Flight Challenge

by michael July 30th, 2011 - No Comments »

Google and Nasa recently teamed up to encourage green air travel. The Green Flight Challenge will host 13 teams that will be competing to make an aircraft that can power through the skies with zero emissions.

The winning team will receive over 1 million dollars, while runner ups will receive cash prizes as well. In order to win, the team must build an aircraft that can go 200 miles in less than 2 hours with no emissions. This is going to be a amazing challenge to keep track of.

This challenge will hopefully blossom aircraft technology and bring something new to the aviation world. It will take place September 25th so keep an eye out in the sky. Can anyone say plug-in 747?

 

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Google Maps Goes Green

by michael July 19th, 2011 - No Comments »

If Google didn’t already do enough, they recently released a Plug-In for Google Chrome that allows users to view their carbon footprint on the Maps feature. This allows users to get directions while tracking their emissions.

This is big deal because most people are visual learners. Implementing this feature allows people to actually see the damage they are causing and possibly persuade them to walk or find an alternative means of transportation.

Recently Los Angeles went through what everyone thought would be Carmageddon; however, it was more like Carmaheaven. There was virtually no traffic with the closure of the 405 freeway and the scare tactic worked. This proved a very valid point; it’s possible, even for big cities like LA to cut back on traffic by keeping people out of their cars.

Granted it was a weekend, I think what Google is doing may possibly be the first step in getting people out of their cars and on their feet by showing them that driving three blocks does impact the environment.

 

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Driverless Cars Will Soon Share The Road

by michael June 24th, 2011 - No Comments »

Ever since the first cars left the assembly line, they have always needed a driver. Today, man is no longer needed to pilot his car. Google has been working on unmanned cars and have already logged more then 140, 000 miles on California roads. This new technology is considered artificial intelligence and uses GPS and other sensors to drive and safely navigate the car to its destination.

Sebastian Thrun, who is the project leader for Googles Endeavor is very enthusiastic about this project.  He quotes “Do you realize that we could change the capacity of the highways by a factor of two or three if we didn’t rely on human precision on staying in the lane but on robotic precision, and thereby drive a little bit closer together on a little bit narrower lanes and do away with all traffic jams on highways.”

His point is very valid, with most accidents being caused by human error, eliminating that factor opens up so much untapped potential. I cannot wait to have a robotic chauffeur and zip through my daily commute with no traffic. Nevada has already authorized this technology in a recent bill, hopefully others will soon follow.

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Google Invests $280M Dollars In Solar Energy

by michael June 14th, 2011 - No Comments »

Today was a landmark for Google going “green”, with an investment of $280M dollars to fund solar panel installations around the United States. This is a huge milestone for solar energy, making it obtainable by the general public. Financing and leasing being made available will allow more people to afford sustainable energy without the big upfront costs.

This isn’t Google’s first time investing in clean energy though, after this deal, Google’s total investments into clean energy will hit a wallet busting $680M dollars. This joint venture with Solar City will definitely be the most expensive and will have the highest impact towards a cleaner future.

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Facebook Is To Help Save Energy

by Daniya April 10th, 2011 - No Comments »

Facebook, the world’s biggest social network, announced recently that their data center is now switching to a new energy efficient server. Not only will it help to “green” their business but this technilogy will also be made available for everyone to use.

The new server is expected be put in place this year. According to Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg, the data center located in Oregon will have a power usage ratio of 1.07, which improves its energy efficiency by 38%.

This is a big step for Facebook, the switch will hopefully lead to more green energy use from this rapidly expanding corporation. Hopefully in the future Facebook can make the switch from conventional coal use to a cleaner energy source.

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