GOOGLE “ENERGY SAVINGS” AND GET “GOOGLE”

NewEnergyNews has done several Google stories in the last few weeks but does not want to keep doing Google stories.

1st Truth: NewEnergyNews has ambivalent feelings about Google. There is gratitude for all the free services that make this work possible and admiration for the awesome gift to the pursuit of information that is the Google search engine. Yet there is frustration with the reduction of so much that is human and ineffable to robotic algorithms and dimensionless marketing numbers.

2nd Truth: Google keeps making newsworthy New Energy news. And the company is, once again, in the right place at the right time.

The newest story comes from “the oldest stories” file: Conservation and efficiency are the cheapest ways to save energy, reduce reliance on imported fossil fuels, cut emissions of greenhouse gases and increase the impact of New Energies.

One way to measure how different this moment in time is from before September 2001 is to remember Vice President Cheney’s pre-9/11 disdain for energy conservation. If the Darth-man would not now admit he got that wrong at the time, he’d surely have to acknowledge times have changed and conservation has moved to the top of today’s bill of fare.

The electrical engineers in Silicon Valley are building something called the “smart grid.” It’s a transmission system that will in the almost foreseeable future not only deliver electricity TO customers (as today’s grid does) but it will also carry information FROM customers to central computer systems. Those computers will be talking to customers’ electronic home appliances and to business heating and cooling systems, helping them to operate in the most efficient possible manner so as to conserve the maximum possible power.

Right now, the “smart grid” is a concept. It will only come to pass when a big set of electrical engineering solutions produce something called “interoperability.” More on that another time.

This is where Google comes in. Knowledge is power. Google owns knowledge and the tools to transmit that knowledge. It plans to create channels by which it can pass on information to consumers about their energy consumption. Studies have shown that consumers with knowledge of their energy consumption use and waste less energy.

Eventually, Google systems will be at the head of the list for auto-implementation by the “smart grid” operators. For now, they will give consumers the chance to monitor and adjust the efficiencies.

Cees Links, CEO, GreenPeak: "[It’s part of] a growing awareness of energy being a precious resource."

No company has changed online behavior more than Google. It has done so by giving more knowledge, and the power that comes with knowledge, to consumers. It is now planning to shape consumers’ use of energy. It will use the same method. It will devise methods of allowing all of us to know how much energy is used in everything we do and letting us decide for ourselves when and where we want our energy use to happen.

Simple idea, great idea. Google did it again. Darn.

Google can facilitate the connections. (click to enlarge)

Google Could Help You Save Energy
October 8, 2008 (BusinessWeek via Yahoo News)

WHO
Google Inc. (Eric Schmidt, CEO); General Electric

WHAT
Google's mission is to organize the world's information. It is undertaking the development of online tools and/or a wireless home networking product to allow consumers to better manage their energy consumption behavior by interacting with the smart grid.


Smart Grid allows for Demand Response. (click to enlarge)

WHEN
- 2008: Utilities are implementing trial smart grid programs by installing smart meters in homes to provide two-way digital communication.
- Third quarter 2008: $220 million of venture capital invested in smart grid startups (Examples: GridPoint, Eka Systems, BPL Global, Trilliant).
- Startups (Examples: Greenbox, PowerMand, EnergyHub) are building energy dashboards and wireless home network products to help consumers manage energy use.
- Within several decades: Advanced technology deployments.
- By 2050: Power grids built out throughout the world to accommodate increased energy demand and New Energy
- By 2050 - World population of 9 billion. It is now 6.5 billion. At the same time, greenhouse gas emissions must be cut 80%. The power grid in its current form can’t handle any of that.

WHERE
- Details of the Google plan came in a speech given by Schmidt at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco.
- In monthly electricity bills, there is not enough transparency or enough options. They need to be more like cell phone bills.

WHY
- Google’s concept came out of its recently announced collaboration with General Electric
- Google has been studying utilities' smart meter projects and looking at designing tools to help consumers understand and manage their energy consumption.
- This could be the most important contribution Google ever makes and the one – in its $4.4 trillion energy proposal, its $45 million investment into energy-related startups, and its plug-in vehicle project – where it can generate revenues.
- Google’s work is organizing personal consumer information through Web searches, advertising, and e-mail. Organizing information is how smart tools lead to energy-saving services.

The goal is transformation. (click to enlarge)

QUOTES
- Schmidt: "(T)o the degree that we can be in the information businesses or communications businesses about energy and its impact on the world, we are clearly going to be there…It seems obvious to me that if you give (energy) information to end users they behave smartly…So we are working on that."
- BusinessWeek: “Simple tools that can affect the behavior of the average consumer's energy usage will be more cost-effective and can be implemented now. For all its do-gooder intentions and philanthropic aims, how can Google resist such an easy target?”