Google comes to South Carolina
On October 7, 2008 the ribbon cutting ceremony at Google's 500-acre data center in Berkeley County, SC. The new data center is in the Mount Holly Business Park on route 52 between Moncks Corner and Goose Creek, South Carolina.
The Goose Creek Gazette had this mouth-watering comment:
The company, which is bringing a major data center to Berkeley County, hosted a ribbon cutting ceremony followed by a barbecue chicken/Lowcountry boil supper at its 500-acre site in the Mt. Holly Business Park, between Goose Creek and Moncks Corner.
But the data center is still in "beta". According to The Post and Courier:
The local Google data center is still in the testing phase, and a second, identical building under construction nearby is far from complete. But local Internet users probably won't notice when it does open up, said Andy Johnson, manager of Google's global data center development.
Hey, I'll work for Google any day, woudln't you?! Anyway, having a Google data center so close to my house is cool enough, but check this out from CNN.com:
According to a patent application seen by London newspaper "The Times," Google is considering launching barges up to seven miles (11km) offshore to host the massive data centers required to run its Internet search engines.
The plan would likely see the data centers -- which consist of huge supercomputers -- use wave energy to power and cool themselves while stationed at sea.
In the application Google states: "Computing centers are located on a ship or ships, anchored in a water body from which energy from natural motion of the water may be captured, and turned into electricity and/or pumping power for cooling pumps to carry heat away."
I am really impressed with news recently about green companies and "recycled energy". Its cool that some of today's businesses are looking toward solar, wind and water for energy generation and reusing the resources we have instead of relying totally on conventional energy.
I'm impressed you mentioned recycled energy! I'm associated with Recycled Energy Development, a company that, um...recycles energy. We turn manufacturers' waste heat into clean power. But here's the thing: this isn't some neat, newfangled idea. This is a tried and true efficiency measure that studies say could cut our greenhouse pollution by 20%. Heck, Thomas Edison even did it. The only reason it isn't being done more is that regulations protect monopoly utilities, keeping more efficient options from emerging. But keep reporting on this!
I really don't know about the monopoly utilities and their power, but its nice to see big business getting into recycled/renewable energy. I've read recently about Google's, Intel's, and the city of San Antonio's efforts in these areas and I can't wait till these technologies become the norm. Thanks for reading!