Google Data » Niki Fenwick

Gooey Googley Energy

Niki Fenwick — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 20:58:00 +0000

We appreciate TechCrunch’s early April Fool’s story but have no comment at this time other than to say that this has nothing to do with our exploration of marshmallows as an alternative energy source. They work for kids; why not for data centers too?

Posted by Jamie Yood, Team Lead, Project Puffed

How much power do you use in the middle of the night?

Niki Fenwick — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 22:10:00 +0000

"Always On" power is the lowest level of sustained power used during a day-long period. On our energy-monitoring software tool, Google PowerMeter, this shows up as a dark green bar on your power usage graph. We've found that American users, on average, have 589 watts of electrical power being consumed all day long. What items are using all this electricity?

- "Vampire loads" - appliances that don't really turn off, even when you're not actively using them

- Old appliances, especially refrigerators

- Lights that are never turned off

- Outdoor lights

- Cable box or DVR

- Computers that never turn off

- Electric water heaters

Here's the good news: It's typically very easy to reduce your Always On power. Below is a graph of a household that did just that. This household started reducing electricity use by turning off their outdoor lighting (green period) instead of leaving the lights on all day (red period). That change reduced the average Always On from 420 watts to 300 watts. That 120 watt Always On reduction can yield hundreds of dollars in estimated savings over a single year!

On January 27, 2010, almost 40% of Google PowerMeter users had Always On levels at over 500 watts. If these users reduced that amount by just 100 watts each, that's a significant cumulative savings. (Look for more of these aggregate analyses of our data in the future as we continue to learn more about how people use electricity.)

Posted by Omar Khan, Software Engineer

Energy R&D funding from "Lightbulbs to Lightbulbs"

Niki Fenwick — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 21:02:00 +0000

(Condensed Remarks from the 2009 California Cleantech Open)

There are still power plants operating today that Thomas Edison could have seen with his own eyes. If he were to tour our electrical grid, he would recognize that too. As former Secretary of State George Shultz says, in energy "the past must not be prologue." Can we reinvent our energy system in only ten years? I think we can -- but we need to have a clear mission, we need to aim high, and we need substantial and sustained R&D funding.

This funding, coupled with tax incentives, loan guarantees, and other market mechanisms, is needed to drive innovation across the entire R&D pipeline -- from research, to development, to demonstration, to deployment, to full-scale commercialization. At Google we like to say, “from lightbulbs to lightbulbs" -- from the initial idea to real products. However you phrase it, investment is needed across that entire pipeline, especially from the government in the early stages where the energy industry often does not invest the large amounts needed to generate technological breakthroughs.

Since 1980 U.S. federal investment in energy R&D has dropped by 58 percent. Back then, 10 percent of the total government R&D investment was in energy. Today, the percentage has shrunk to only two percent. Recent signs in Washington are definitely positive. Earlier this year, President Obama added over $5.7 billion in 2-year stimulus funding for energy research, development, and demonstration. But this isn't enough, and it's not sustained. We're still on a 2-lane innovation road, not a superhighway -- and the road we're currently on is headed for a big cliff. Unless something changes, we're going to lose this significant funding after next year.

President Obama has called for $150 billion over 10 years for energy R&D. Some experts go even further -- Professors Dan Kammen and Gregory Nemet at UC Berkeley propose that annual energy R&D levels on the order of $30 billion will be necessary to address the climate challenge. And I was delighted to see recently that ARPA-E -- the new Department of Energy agency chartered to fund breakthrough ideas -- has made its first set of grants of $151 million for 37 projects. This is a great start, but it is only a start. We all need do our part to help convince our leaders in Washington to follow up on this down payment with substantial and sustained investment.

Posted by Bill Weihl, Green Energy Czar

Empowering the UK with Google PowerMeter

Niki Fenwick — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 03:08:00 +0000

Electricity consumers in the United Kingdom can now access Google PowerMeter, a free software tool that provides consumers with information on how much energy their home is using. The software receives information from utility smart meters and in-home energy management devices and visualizes this information on a personalized iGoogle homepage. Today we're announcing both our very first UK utility partnership and our very first UK device partner.

Our utility partner, first:utility, is the only energy supplier in the United Kingdom to provide free smart meters to its customers, and is currently in the process of rolling them out across the country. To date, first:utility has over 30,000 customers signed up to its service. Starting in early November, all first:utility customers with smart meters will be able to sign up to use Google PowerMeter, empowering them with greater information about their home electricity use. According to Mark Daeche, first:utility’s Chief Executive, "At the end of the day, if you can’t measure and view your energy use, it’s very difficult to make savings.”

Google is also partnering with AlertMe, a self-install consumer device manufacturer and our first partner with a product available in the United Kingdom. Starting today, AlertMe customers in the UK can access their home’s data through Google PowerMeter on their iGoogle homepage. In just a few minutes consumers can access their home energy data from anywhere they can access the Internet. Pilgrim Beart, founder and CEO of AlertMe noted, “Our partnership with Google PowerMeter puts your home energy consumption right in front of you every time you go online.” Check out this video to learn more about how you can start monitoring your home energy use today.

With today's announcement, we've now signed up two device partners and ten utility partners serving five countries!

Posted by Ka-Ping Yee, Software Engineer and Jens Redmer, Business Development

Open enrollment for Google PowerMeter partners

Niki Fenwick — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 00:09:00 +0000

The Google PowerMeter team is pleased to announce an important milestone for our product -- open enrollment. This means that utilities can enable self-serve sign-up for customers to use the Google PowerMeter gadget. More users means improved feedback on our product and this will translate into an improved product experience. Here's how it works: If your utility has open enrollment enabled for your account, with just two simple steps you can have your usage data transmitted to Google and visible online via Google PowerMeter.

Yello Strom, a German utility and our first partner in Europe, is fully up and running with open enrollment. All of the customers who use Yello's smart electricity meter - the Sparzähler - can now also view their individual electricity consumption online using Google PowerMeter. With over 1.4 million customers, Yello is among Germany's top ten electricity companies and the very first company to offer commercial smart meters nationwide in Germany since 2008. Yello’s smart meter interacts with a PC to make energy consumption visible for the customer – both in real-time within their own household and online at fifteen-minute intervals. Expanding the number of customers who can sign up for Google PowerMeter is just one more way this forward-thinking utility is improving access to energy information. As Executive Director Martin Vesper put it, "We are now offering our customers even more ways to maintain an overview of their electricity consumption with the help of the internet. And when people know exactly what is going on with their energy usage, they can use energy efficiently without sacrificing convenience."

Other Google PowerMeter partners are also working towards open enrollment capabilities. Florida's JEA has built an open enrollment system and is actively rolling it out within their customer base. And National Information Solutions Cooperative (NISC), the latest addition to our strategic partners, is actively integrating Google PowerMeter into their offerings for all Utility Co-ops that they service.

Open enrollment and our recent device announcement mean that even more users can now see their electricity data to save energy and money!

Posted by Srikanth Rajagopalan, Product Manager

Cash for a clunker

Niki Fenwick — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 19:09:00 +0000

Ever since college, I've been driving the same car: a 2000 Nissan XTerra. It's been a great car and, after more than 100,000 miles, it has a lot of memories: a ski trip to Lake Tahoe through a blizzard, driving down the I5 to Los Angeles, driving across the entire country and then back! However, over the last few years I started to feel guilty about the how much gas my car managed to guzzle. The official stats claimed 19 miles-per-gallon on the highway, but they must have been driving slower than I do because I never saw that sort of mileage. So, I was excited when the government approved the "Cash for Clunkers" program!

I talked it over with my wife, and we decided it was time to upgrade to a more environmentally friendly car. We looked around, and decided to get a Toyota Prius. After checking out the Cash for Clunkers website, I figured out that because the Prius is rated at 50 mpg, well more than 10 mpg more than the 16 mpg my XTerra currently rates, we were eligible for a $4,500 trade-in value through the program. That made the Prius not only a environmentally friendly choice, but an economically attractive one as well. We found a participating dealer nearby and headed over to trade in our clunker.

After a quick test drive and some effective negotiations, we struck a deal and bought the new car. As always, there was quite a bit of paperwork involved, including a few extra pages for the "Cash for Clunkers" program. (Then again, $4,500 is certainly worth a couple of pages of paperwork.) After signing on the dotted line, the car was ours.

Just today President Barack Obama signed a bill extending funding for this incredibly popular program, which burned through its $1 billion budget in just one week. It's not often you can get something you want, feel like you're doing something good for the planet, and get $4,500 for doing it. So consider trading in your clunker for a more fuel-efficient model this weekend!

Posted by Jeff Keltner, Business Development Manager

Turning on the Solar Power Tower

Niki Fenwick — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 20:23:00 +0000

In 2007 Google.org launched our Renewable Energy Cheaper than Coal initiative and announced a $10 million investment in the early-stage clean power company eSolar, Inc. Yesterday in Southern California, eSolar flipped the switch on what is to be the first solar power tower facility in the U.S. that will enter full commercial operation.

Success here could signal the emergence of a clean energy technology by which we might -- for the first time -- economically harness the sun to produce large quantities of electricity. And we would be harnessing a massive and, for all practical purposes, inexhaustible energy supply.

In many respects eSolar has turned conventional thinking about solar power tower technology on its head in order to drastically reduce the capital and operating cost of solar thermal power plants. Instead of employing a small number of large and expensive specialty mirrors eSolar takes the opposite approach – incorporating thousands of small mirrors that can be made cheaply in massive quantities. And instead of having to reinforce large mirrors to stand up to high winds, eSolar’s small mirrors have a low profile, reducing material costs including steel and concrete for the mounting structures.

Of course this massive number of mirrors requires more sophisticated software so they accurately track the sun leading to high heat output and system efficiency. At Google we’re particularly intrigued with this aspect of the eSolar product -- that is, how the performance of energy technology can be enhanced by information technology. Call it ET meets IT.

The eSolar team has taken a giant step toward cracking the code on solar power tower technology. I’m hopeful that just a few years from now we will see this facility – and many more like it – focusing the sun’s energy to produce a brighter future for our children and the planet they will inherit.

Posted by Dan Reicher, Director of Climate Change & Energy Initaitives

The Final Inch DVD – captioned for 19 languages

Niki Fenwick — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 16:03:00 +0000

Google.org is pleased to announce that The Final Inch, a film produced with support from and in collaboration with Google.org, is now available on DVD. The Final Inch received a 2008 Oscar nomination in the category of Best Documentary (Short Film).

To facilitate wide global distribution, the DVD has been priced inexpensively and captioned with subtitles for 19 languages. You may order a copy of the film at Amazon.com. Purchasers of the DVD are welcome to show the film at educational events and not-for-profit fundraising events targeted at polio eradication.

Google.org plans to donate $2 from the purchase of each DVD, though at least December 31, 2009, to polio eradication partners such as Rotary International and UNICEF. In February of this year, UNICEF issued press release about The Final Inch that effectively outlines what a crucial moment it is for the polio eradication effort in India.

Posted by Gregory Miller, Director, Google.org

German utility partners with Google PowerMeter – willkommen!

Niki Fenwick — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 09:28:00 +0000

Earlier today we announced on the Google Germany Blog that Yello Strom is our first Google PowerMeter partner in Europe. With over 1.4 million customers, Yello is among Germany's ten largest electricity companies and the very first company to offer commercial smart meters nationwide in Germany.

When Yello Executive Director Martin Vesper gave us a demo of the Sparzähler meter a few months ago, it felt like fate -- Yello's solution for making energy information easy-to-access and easy-to-act-upon aligns perfectly with our vision for Google PowerMeter. The Sparzähler meter's broadband connectivity makes it possible for Google PowerMeter users to see 15 minute interval data nearly in real time. (Its design is also pretty sleek, we think.)

Google PowerMeter now has nine utility partners around the world, large and small -- and each partner shares our goal of giving customers easy access to their own home energy usage information.

We hear from utilities around the world that are interested in enabling their customers to use Google PowerMeter. At the moment, we're focused on working with those utilities that can collect a minimum of hourly data (that's 24 reads a day) and deliver it to Google within one day. If you work for a utility with these kind of capabilities and are interested in getting your customers Google PowerMeter, please let us know!

Posted by Tom Sly, New Business Development

Happy World Environment Day

Niki Fenwick — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 18:24:00 +0000

Today is World Environment Day and I wanted to point your attention to a major initiative that just launched and is supported by Google: The Prince of Wales' Prince's Rainforest Project, dedicated to protecting the Amazon rainforest. Check out this video featuring supporters from around the world, including Google's very own CEO, Eric Schmidt - and some adorable frogs. Prince Charles spoke about the destruction of the rainforest and other challenges of the 21st century at our recent European Zeitgeist. As he has said, "If we lose the battle against tropical deforestation, we lose the battle against climate change."

Posted by Amit Sood, Sr. Product Marketing Manager

Experimental Flu Trends for Mexico

Niki Fenwick — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 16:35:00 +0000

(Cross-posted on the Official Google Blog)

In November 2008 we launched Google Flu Trends after finding a close relationship between how many people search for flu-related topics and how many people actually have flu symptoms. Google Flu Trends may be able to detect influenza outbreaks earlier than other systems because it estimates flu activity in near real time.

In response to recent inquiries from public health officials, we've been attempting to use Google search activity in Mexico to help track human swine flu levels. Experimental Flu Trends for Mexico is, as you might have guessed, very experimental. But the system has detected increases in flu-related searches in Mexico City (Distrito Federal) and a few other Mexican states in recent days, beginning early in the week of April 19-25.

In the United States, we were able to validate our estimates using data from a surveillance system managed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). We have not verified our data for Mexico in the same manner, but we've seen that Google users in Mexico (and around the world) also search for many flu-related topics when they have flu-like symptoms. Given the tremendous recent attention to swine flu, our model tries to filter out search queries that are more likely associated with topical searches rather than searches by those who may be experiencing symptoms.

While we would prefer to validate this data and improve its accuracy, we decided to release an early version today so that it might help public health officials and concerned individuals get an up-to-date picture of the ongoing swine flu outbreak. As with our existing Flu Trends system, estimates are provided across many of Mexico's states and updated every day. Our current estimates of flu activity in the U.S. are still generally low as would be expected given the relatively low confirmed swine flu case count. However, we'll be keeping an eye on the data to look for any spike in activity.

We're keenly aware of the trust our users place in us and our responsibility to protect their privacy. Experimental Flu Trends for Mexico -- like Google Flu Trends -- cannot be used to identify individual users. The patterns we observe are only meaningful across large populations of Google searchers. We hope that this experimental release provides useful information.

For updates on swine flu and information on how to stay healthy during a disease outbreak, visit the CDC's swine flu site.

Posted by Jeremy Ginsberg and Matt Mohebbi, Software Engineers

Washington plugs into the smart grid

Niki Fenwick — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 07:24:00 +0000

Just one week after launching Google's energy information campaign, we kicked off our first joint smart grid event with GE, a larger clean energy collaboration we announced last fall. Our timing was fortuitous; the event took place just as President Obama signed an historic economic stimulus bill that includes $11 billion to modernize the electricity grid.

Getting energy information into the hands of consumers requires reworking the electricity grid to make it smarter. At yesterday's event, hosted in Google's Washington office, experts explored what the fundamental elements of a smarter grid should be -- from empowering consumers with information, tools, and choices to manage their energy use, to creating an open system that encourages innovation, to enabling a massive scale up of renewable energy sources and plug-in vehicles. We also explored the government's role in accelerating these efforts. Our panelists were enthusiastic about the opportunity created by the stimulus, but also noted the government's challenge of getting the money out the door in an effective and efficient manner.

Some highlights from the event:

GE's film clip highlighting a smart grid project in Oklahoma
An appearance by Carol Browner, President Obama's senior energy official in the White House, who noted with delight the packed crowd of over 450 people
Former astronaut and current Googler, Ed Lu, making the case for open standards and user access to energy information on our technology panel
Our very own Dan Reicher shamelessly punning that "we want to help build a fridge to the 21st century," a play on Bill Clinton's '96 campaign mantra

To stay plugged into our energy information campaign and learn about developments along the road to a smarter grid, be sure to join our Google Group.

UPDATE: Watch the event video on YouTube.

Posted by Michael Terrell, Google.org Program Manager

Stimulating clean energy RD&D

Niki Fenwick — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 07:06:00 +0000

We must quickly develop low-cost renewable and efficient energy technology to avoid the devastating effects of climate change. This requires a strong financial commitment to clean energy research, development, and demonstration (RD&D) to achieve big breakthroughs.

Historically such funding has been anemic. After a peak in 1978 of $7 billion, U.S. government funding for energy RD&D dropped by more than 70%. Corporate RD&D fell even more, and funding in the early 2000s totaled just 0.3% of sector revenue, compared to 15% in the biotech sector. Is it any wonder the energy sector has struggled to make progress?

What level of energy RD&D funding is needed? Kammen and Nemet look at several different metrics and suggest that a sustained level between $20-40 billion is needed to reinvigorate the field. Recent activities push in the right direction: 2008 funding reached $3 billion, 50% higher than during the early 2000s, and the stimulus bill recently signed into law adds $3.25 billion in new RD&D funding for clean energy. But to have a truly transformative effect, investment needs to climb even higher.

In addition, without emphasizing the "R" in RD&D, we will produce only incremental improvements. We need to prime the innovation pump in order to produce more high-quality ideas that produce radically better (and cheaper) technologies. This will provide long-term job growth, and also increase consumers' buying power, stimulating the economy.

Funding must also be coupled with long-term demand for clean technology. This gives companies confidence their investments will pay out, and assures students entering the field that jobs won't evaporate. Research must also focus more on clean tech; in recent years only 40% of energy RD&D funding has gone to renewable energy and energy efficiency.

At Google we've learned some that might be successfully applied to energy:

"Put the user first and all else follows." For instance, customers care about saving money, but only if it's easy to measure. Providing ways to cheaply monitor energy consumption is a powerful first step.
"Great just isn't good enough." Cost-parity for renewables is required for long-term competitiveness, but to replace conventional technology we must develop renewable electricity cheaper than coal, the least expensive fossil fuel.
"Launch early and often." Instead of waiting for perfection, get new technologies into the marketplace quickly, then improve through iteration.

These strategies will make sure that the widest possible set of ideas are considered, increasing the number of breakthroughs. A "fail fast" policy would allocate people to the great ideas, with high-impact results guaranteeing continued funding, particularly at the critical demonstration stage where many technologies fail to attract sufficient capital. Carrying projects over this "Valley of Death" to full commercialization will ultimately result in the best, lowest-cost technologies rapidly reaching the market. For the sake of the planet, clean energy can't arrive soon enough.

Check out this excellent complementary set of recommendations recently published by Harvard's Belfer Center.

Posted by Jeffery Greenblatt, Climate and Energy Technology Manager

Capitol Hill spotlights energy efficiency

Niki Fenwick — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 18:17:00 +0000

In the 1970s and 1980s, America's push for energy conservation meant "doing less with less" - lowering the thermostat, turning off lights, donning a sweater, and leaving the car in the garage. Following up his testimony from earlier this month, Dan Reicher, Google.org's Director of Climate Change and Energy Initiatives, visited Capitol Hill again this week to discuss a new 21st Century approach - harnessing technology to achieve greater energy efficiency and "do more with less."

The hearing, which also featured Ian Bowles, Massachusetts' Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs, focused on ways in which consumers, businesses, and government can work together to achieve greater energy efficiency. Studies have shown that efficiency opportunities can cut global energy demand to less than half of what is projected by 2020.

Dan stressed the need for a new vision for how America generates, transmits, and uses electricity. He noted that the increasing interplay between energy hardware and information software, along with the rise of the Internet and the connectivity it brings, adds to the potential to make and use energy more productively. From smart meters and smart appliances to smart homes and a smart grid, we are poised to significantly advance our ability to monitor and manage energy.

Dan highlighted Google.org's RechargeIT initiative and discussed the efficiency advantages of plug-in vehicles. He emphasized how the government could help get more plug-ins on the road by providing financial incentives, investing in our national electricity infrastructure, funding R&D, and modernizing our regulatory system to permit real-time pricing of power.

Dan's other proposals include implementing an Energy Efficiency Resource Standard, which would set efficiency resource targets for electricity and gas suppliers. He also called for increased federal support for weatherizing energy inefficient homes in low-income communities, and for improved financial incentives to encourage private-sector investment in promising clean energy technologies.

Check out Dan's testimony and video from the hearing.

Posted by Johanna Shelton, Policy Counsel & Legislative Strategist

Driving plug-in technology with investments of $2.75 million

Niki Fenwick — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 08:02:00 +0000

Last June Google.org launched RechargeIT, an initiative to accelerate the adoption of plug-in electric vehicles. At that time we announced a request for investment proposals (RFP) from teams working on technologies relevant to this goal. Today we are pleased to announce our first RechargeIT investments in two promising companies tackling the challenge of vehicle electrification.

Aptera Motors of Carlsbad, California is building an ultra-high efficiency vehicle based on improved aerodynamics and composite materials. Aptera's first prototype achieved over 230 miles per gallon during testing, and they are developing an all-electric as well as a plug-in hybrid vehicle based on this design.

ActaCell is an Austin-based company working to commercialize lithium-ion battery technology developed at the University of Texas at Austin. ActaCell's technology offers the promise of improved battery cycle life and lower costs, while maintaining a focus on battery safety, all of which are important factors in the widespread adoption of plug-in vehicles.

Both of these innovative companies and their capable teams are working to develop technology that is crucial to helping us realize the RechargeIT vision: millions of plug-in vehicles on the road.

Posted by Karl Sun, Google.org Investments Principal

Our plug-ins perform: 90+ MPG

Niki Fenwick — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 19:24:00 +0000

Last summer Google.org launched the RechargeIT program, an initiative to accelerate the commercialization of plug-in vehicles. As part of this project, we created the GFleet, a free car-sharing program for Google employees. The GFleet includes a handful of hybrid vehicles converted to plug-ins with a Hymotion conversion module.

Our plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) have been on the road for about a year now, and the RechargeIT team has been diligently collecting statistics on their performance. We noticed that employees primarily use our plug-ins for short trips close to our headquarters, so the data weren't truly representative of typical U.S. driving patterns. We were curious to see how the cars would perform under controlled conditions - and how they would stack up against other conventional automobiles typically found in U.S. households. With that, the RechargeIT Driving Experiment was born!

In total, it took just over seven weeks to complete all the trips in all the vehicles. And with the results in, our plug-ins did great, with the Priuses getting more than 90 miles per gallon. The PHEVs not only greatly outperformed the average American fleet fuel economy of 19.8 MPG, they did significantly better than the standard hybrids – 53% fuel economy improvement for the plug-in Ford Escape and 93% improvement for the plug-in Prius.

Check out our newly improved RechargeIT website for more details on our Driving Experiment.

Posted by Rolf Schreiber, RechargeIT Engineer

RechargeIT goes to Washington, calls for plug-in videos

Niki Fenwick — Tue, 27 May 2008 20:38:00 +0000

Posted by Adam Borelli, Team Coordinator

On June 11th and 12th Google.org and the Brookings Institution will host a conference on plug-in vehicles in Washington, D.C. We'll examine their potential to reduce oil dependence and pollution, and the role that federal policy can play in promoting them.

Planned attendees include top bipartisan elected officials, including Senators Orrin Hatch, John Kerry, and Lamar Alexander, as well as Congressmen John Dingell and Jay Inslee. We'll hear from FedEx CEO Fred Smith and New York Times columnist Tom Friedman. Speakers will include advocates, officials, and automakers from around the world. We hope you'll join us.

Can't make it to Washington? You can still get involved! We've issued a call for videos, so grab a camera and tell us why you want to drive a plug-in. If you already own one, show us how it works. The videos will be displayed on our website and the best ones will be shown at the conference. We'll also be webcasting the event for those that can't be there in person.

See you in Washington!

A green collar economy

Niki Fenwick — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 06:34:00 +0000

Posted by Shannon Oliver, Associate, Google.org

In the spirit of Earth Day, I took a look at how the environmental movement can foster job growth. Here's what I found:

First, what exactly are green jobs and what can they do to spur the U.S. economy and stop climate change? Simply put, green jobs are jobs that are good for the environment, good for our planet, and pay a living wage. In a recent New York Times article entitled, Millions of Jobs of a Different Collar, the Sierra Club’s Carl Pope stated, “A green job has to do something useful for people, and it has to be helpful to, or at least not damaging to, the environment.”

Can the fight against global warming really create millions of these green jobs across America? With worry about the economy on the rise, it is certainly a hopeful scenario. A recent article in the Oakland Tribune suggests that experts envision just such a future: “If global warming is to be slowed, it will take wholesale change in how electricity is generated, how people travel and how they heat and cool their houses. That means installing hundreds of millions of solar panels, building thousands of wind farms and geothermal plants, engineering new ways to derive energy from renewable sources and weatherizing millions of homes. Green companies are rapidly hiring new workers and indications are they will continue.”

For those who want to dig a little deeper into the data, please check out my longer post on the potential number of jobs created by a cleaner, greener economy. And have a happy Earth Day!

The Race is on to Develop Ultra Fuel-Efficient Cars

Niki Fenwick — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 05:12:00 +0000

Posted Niki Fenwick, Google.org

With the price of gas topping $3.75 this week here in California, drivers will be pleased to learn about the official launch of the Progressive Automotive X PRIZE. This is an international competition (with a $10 million purse) designed to inspire a new generation of viable, super fuel-efficient vehicles. Teams are already busy designing, building and working to bring to market 100 MPGe vehicles that people want to buy, and that meet market needs for price, size, capability, safety and performance – and, most importantly, are clean. NBC showcased some concept carsin their Today Show coverage of the competition and the announcement even garnered a shout-out from car enthusiast Jay Leno.

California’s ZEV Program

Niki Fenwick — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 06:34:00 +0000

Posted by Adam Borelli, Team Coordinator, Google.org

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) is considering changes to the Zero Emission Vehicle Program (also commonly known as the "ZEV Mandate") on March 27th at its Board meeting in Sacramento. This is big deal.

The ZEV Program, in short, is a regulation that requires major automakers to produce a certain number of ZEVseach model year in order to do business in California. Some of the credits may be met with vehicles that are not pure ZEVs, such as hybrids and plug-in hybrids that include some advanced, low polluting components. The ZEV Program does not treat all vehicles equally; it gives fuel cell vehicles the most credits, then pure electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids, followed by a host of advanced vehicles like hybrids. The ultimate objective is to improve California air quality.

Google.org has been talking with Board Members, staff, and stakeholder groups to understand their perspectives on the proposed changes to the regulations. After meeting with them, we decided there are five recommendations relating to the proposed changes that we will submit to the Air Resources Board. Our hope is that when approved and implemented, the ZEV Program will accelerate innovation and reduce air pollution by getting large numbers of vehicles into consumers’ hands and on the road.

1. Strengthen the newly proposed "enhanced AT PZEV" category to require a minimum capability to drive in pure electric mode for 25 miles to accommodate the commuting range of a majority of drivers and make the vehicles more useful, profitable, and marketable

2. Require automakers produce at least 10,000 electric or fuel cell vehicles total from 2012 to 2014, not the proposed 2,500 vehicles.

3. Do not allow the electric and fuel cell vehicles sold in other states to count towards the credits for the California requirement; placing vehicles in other states will not result in the necessary net improvements in California air quality.

4. Maintain the credit sunset for less efficient, lower power hybrids; the current proposal asks to extend these credits indefinitely.

5. Do not increase the credits for Neighborhood Electric Vehicles (low speed vehicles similar to electric golf carts); they are not driven like full-function vehicles that are the focus of the ZEV Program.

To learn more about CARB, the ZEV mandate, and what you can do, check out a more detailed post on our new RechargeIT blog.

Introducing the RechargeIT Blog

Niki Fenwick — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 17:20:00 +0000

Posted by the RechargeIT Team

Power on! Not that we have anything against the sound of exhaust streaming out of a tailpipe, but electrified transportation is, simply, cool and better for our health, the environment, and energy security. Google.org's RechargeIT initiative is launching a blog. This blog will cover an array of plug-in topics, including vehicle technology, battery technology, RechargeIT's projects and data, policy, interviews, and interesting snippets from newspaper articles and current events. Some posts will be very technical, others less so, and some not technical at all. The one binding characteristic is that we hope all posts will be interesting.

We would like to encourage you all to sign up for our discussion list here. We look forward to hearing your thoughts on our posts and the ideas they provoke. We will be signed up to the discussion list and can answer questions you have about our blog posts, but the discussion list is mainly for you to discuss the posts further.

Not familiar with RechargeIT?
The RechargeIT initiative is a project of Google.org in which we converted four Toyota Priuses and two Ford Escape hybrids to plug-in cars using the Hymotion-A123 system. We use these vehicles as a test fleet and track their data to better understand their capabilities (we will discuss the particular data in a future post). We also issued a $10 million RFP for plug-in and component technologies, engage in policy debates as with the ZEV Mandate (we will discuss this in a future post too!), we fund promising nonprofits and researchers to continue their important work, and work with the stakeholders to better understand this space and help them in any way we can.

Two Steps to the Left

Niki Fenwick — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 21:35:00 +0000

Posted by Joanne Stevens, Associate, Google.org

Undeterred by Atlanta's recent bout of bad weather, 2500 delegates from around the globe arrived on Sunday to participate in the sixth International Conference on Emerging Infectious Diseases. Practitioners and researchers representing the fields of human health, epidemiology, veterinary medicine, ecosystem science and more, convened to discuss the drivers of emerging infectious diseases and strategies to improve our capacity to detect and respond to threats.

Dr. Larry Brilliant, Google.org's executive director, delivered a plenary address to a packed auditorium on Monday morning. His speech described novel techniques within surveillance and modeling that might allow us to shift our interventions "two steps to the left" of where we are today.

Dr. Brilliant spoke about the use of Internet and mobile technology to improve our digital detection of diseases. He highlighted HealthMap as an example of an organization that is using online data sources to produce a global disease alert map. Dr. Brilliant also noted the importance of using new technologies for genetic detection. We know, for example, that over two-thirds of all new emerging diseases are of animal origin. By collecting and analyzing samples at the human/animal interface, we can begin to discover new viruses and study how they are able to jump species. He also discussed vulnerability mapping, a means to identify hot spots at increased risk. By integrating data on landscape, ecosystem dynamics, climate, and demographics we might be able to identify areas of the world where diseases are most likely to emerge, allowing for more targeted surveillance and preparedness activities.

Through our very own Predict and Prevent initiative, Google.org hopes to work with the public health community to move toward developing and adopting these more proactive approaches.

Google for Non-Profits goes live!

Niki Fenwick — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 21:27:00 +0000

Posted by
Chris Busselle Google.org

Earlier today, we launched Google for Non-Profits, a website tailored to the needs of non-profits where people can learn about products that will help make their important work just a little bit easier.

Check out our site and blog post for more info.