The Green Energy Czar says energy efficiency matters
Thursday, February 25, 2010
By Christina Williams
Sustainable Business Oregon
Tuesday, February 23, 2010 - Portland plays host to Google’s green energy czar — really, it’s on his business card — next week as the Software Association of Oregon features Bill Weihl at its annual member dinner.
What does information technology got to do with clean energy? People have been asking that question ever since Google started talking publicly about its energy goals when it launched its "RE>C" initiative that aims to make renewable energy cheaper than coal two years ago. And I got to ask that question this week of Weihl.
"A very important thing any company can do is make sure they clean up their own house first," he said. "There are many relatively easy things that you can do to make your IT operation more efficient and most of them pay you back very quickly."
Sure, Weihl also talked about Google’s investments in solar thermal energy generators such as eSolar and its interest in geothermal energy production — an area of interest for Oregon with 13 projects in various stages of development in the works — and high-elevation winds. But he also highlighted one of Google’s major initiatives, its PowerMeter program, a simple Web-based tool that will help consumers understand when and how they use electricity so they can make better efficiency decisions.
In other words, for all the cool research and high-profile investments Google is doing in the green-energy world, it all starts with the decidedly unsexy step of turning off the computer at night.
In our Research Snapshot this week we take a look at the new Northwest Power Plan, which will count on efficiency efforts freeing up thousands of megawatts. Because the efficiency habit might just be the most renewable form of energy there is. Just ask the czar.
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