Recently in Environment Category

A recent article in the Sunday Times regarding Google's carbon emissions sent the corporation's public relations team into a frenzy.

The Times journalist apparently had an axe to grind with Google. Alex Wissner-Gross, the scientist cited in the Times article, retorts that his research didn't even mention Google. The official Google blog claims that their data centers are the most energy efficient data centers in the world. A single Google search consumes about 0.3 watt-hours and releases a mere 0.2 grams of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

Yellow journalism at its finest!

Behold! United States Patent 7,466,536 was granted to EEStore Incorporated last month. Yes, that's 3500 volts. And yes, that's 31 farads. This is a capacitor.

Installed in an electric vehicle, an array of these capacitors could store 52 kilowatt-hours in a 282 pound box. That's 2.6 times the energy density of lithium-ion batteries, which would require a 752 pound box to store the same charge. Unlike a lithium-ion battery, this capacitor contains no toxic chemicals, will never explode, can be charged 60 times faster (with the right equipment), will not wear out after three years, and will keep a charge ten times longer.

Two advances in technology made this capacitor possible. The first was the application of integrated circuit screen-printing to create capacitors. The second and most important was the material used as the dielectric. Alumina-coated calcined composition-modified barium titanate has an amazingly high breakdown voltage of 610 V/µm at 85° C.

This capacitor has the potential to revolutionize the way we store energy in the very near future.

• It eliminates almost every disadvantage of the electric car and paves the way for electric buses, motorcycles, and tractors.
• Imagine laptop or cell phone batteries that outlive the device.
• You could buy all your household electricity at night when the rates are cheapest. Similarly, electric companies could make more efficient use of power grids by storing electricity near the consumer and discharging during peak hours.
  
• The biggest problem with solar and wind power has been the ability to store enough power for hours when the sun doesn't shine and the wind doesn't blow.

The largest disadvantage to this capacitor is the voltage required. Additional circuitry is necessary to convert to and from 3500 volts. In a car with regenerative breaking, for example, a converter is necessary to store that energy back into the capacitor.

This capacitor or similar inventions will change everything, and this is just the beginning. Giant leaps forward in solar panel technology are just around the corner too. I'm very excited about our energy future.

The Sunday Times reported this morning that a Google search produces about 7 grams of carbon emissions. For comparison, that's roughly how much you release by breathing for 15 minutes.

I have a major problem with this kind of journalism. The internet is a complex system. What exactly did Alex Wissner-Gross include in this calculation? There are many parts of the internet that consume electricity or release carbon dioxide.

• User's computer and monitor
• Network infrastructure that connects the user to Google
• Google search farms
• Fans and air conditioners that cool all this equipment
• The manufacture, transport, and assembly of all this equipment
• Lights the technicians need to keep the routers and farm running
• The technicians' commute to work everday
• The technicians' lunches
• Light the user shines at their keyboard

How much does each part contribute to this total? Could we reduce emissions by optimizing specific parts? How much would reducing the number of Google searches reduce overall emissions? Should we be worried about this at all?