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1. Google Searches Are Power Hogs
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2. Mayfield Fund Gets Serious About Energy Tech
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3. Detroit Day One: What's New
Google Searches Are Power Hogs
Katie Fehrenbacher - Energy
Because Google has developed its search engine to provide you with results as fast as possible, its search queries are actually consuming a significant amount of power, resulting in substantial CO2 emissions per search query, Harvard PhD student Alex Wissner-Gross, creator of CO2Stats tells the London Times. How much is a lot? An average search on the Google emits 7 grams of CO2 — so, two searches on Google uses the same amount of power as boiling water in a tea kettle.
Wissner-Gross, who will be speaking at our Green:Net conference in March in San Francisco, calculated the data for his Harvard research on the environmental impact of computing. He says the power consumption of a Google search-query is so high because the company’s process sends data to numerous competing servers, sometimes thousands of miles away, in order to bring back the result as fast as possible. The article didn’t compare the carbon footprint of a Google search to that of other search engines, but Wissner-Gross’ research also found that looking at a simple web page emits 0.02g of CO2 per second, and a more complex web site with video and images emits closer to 0.2g of CO2 a second. (That means our online video sister site NewTeeVee is in trouble!)
My guess is that Google is very aware that its architecture is more power-intensive than it could be, but it has determined that the speed of the query is critical to its business success — and therefore more important than bringing down that power consumption.
Remember, power use is a cost for Google and other computing companies, so bringing down power consumption of anything in its infrastructure is just good for its business, beyond the environmental impact. And Google has long been very aggressive about reducing power in its data centers, as well as investing in other ways to make itself and the computing world more eco-friendly. So, if there was an easy way for Google to reduce that per-query energy consumption, it probably would have done it already. It’s not like the company doesn’t pay attention to this sort of thing.
But perhaps bringing attention to the situation will push Google to look at more innovative ways to reduce that per-query energy consumption. Is there a way to provide results at a slightly slower speed at certain times of day when search volume is lowest? Or, here’s a somewhat hokier option: offer a feel-good Google page (greenergoogle.com?) that offers slower service by pinging fewer servers. But I can guarantee you, if less power consumption per search query means a lot worse service, users will opt for the power-hungry version.
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Mayfield Fund Gets Serious About Energy Tech
Katie Fehrenbacher - Startups
Tech industry watchers likely know the almost 40-year old venture firm Mayfield Fund for its investments in computing and Internet startups — the company funded well known computing companies Silicon Graphics and SanDisk more than a decade ago. But like so many others in the Valley have done in recent years, Mayfield has decided it needs to make a much more substantial push into a decidely newer, greener sector: cleantech. To lead that effort Mayfield has hired hot-shot green investor Todd Kimmel away from Advanced Technology Ventures (ATV). Kimmel, only 33, was responsible for leading ATV’s investments in biofuel startup Coskata (which he also co-founded), and coal gasification company GreatPoint Energy.
While the partners at Mayfield wouldn’t say how much of their latest $395 million fund would be allocated for investing in clean technology startups, Mayfield partner Navin Chaddha told us that eventually the firm plans to commit to energy technology on a scale similar to that of its more traditional investments in consumer Internet, media, enterprise software and communications technology.
Currently, Mayfield has only a couple investments in cleantech, including LatticePower, a Chinese LED maker; Servomax India, which makes more efficient power generators for cell phone towers; and PolyFuel, a fuel cell membrane-maker in Mountain View, Calif. But Mayfield did bring on Tesla founder Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning as entrepreneurs-in-residence last July to explore cleantech opportunities.
Kimmel tells us he joined Mayfield in part because he was attracted to the firm’s “clean sheet of paper” in the cleantech world, as well as its focus on international investing in countries like India and China. He says he plans to actively look into some of the less well-funded sectors like geothermal, capturing emissions from coal power and green chemicals.
Chaddha says that Mayfield has partners focusing on two of three parts of the energy supply chain: distribution and consumption. Kimmel will fill Mayfield’s need to invest in the third part: energy supply. Chaddha says Mayfield likely won’t hire any more cleantech-focused investors for at least 6-12 months, but the firm is likely to bring on more part-time advisors and experts with deep science knowledge to help with different specialties.
Venture capital firms have been moving from IT and Internet investing into cleantech for some time, and Mayfield’s move is relatively late and small. Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Kleiner Perkins started allocating large chunks of their funds to cleantech years ago, and newer firms like Khosla Ventures are focusing almost all their efforts on cleantech. But Mayfield appears to be starting its green efforts off on the right foot, as Kimmel has likely accrued a lot of knowledge and connections that can help shape Mayfield’s cleantech practice from the ground up. Mayfield could also have an advantage in that it has a history of funding international startups; innovation for technology to fight climate change won’t be confined to a car ride away from Silicon Valley.
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Detroit Day One: What's New
khallgeisler - Bikes & Cars
I’ve attended about a half-dozen press conference at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit today — enough to give you an idea of what’s to come. I’ll have pictures and in-depth information on the models mentioned here in the next day or two.
GM: To emphasize the company’s commitment to greener powertrain technology, the Volt led the GM parade. The much-hyped range-extended electric vehicle should be market-ready by the end of 2010. The Chevy Beat microcar concept will be produced worldwide as the Chevy Spark in 2011. The surprise of the conference was the all-electric Cadillac Converj concept (nice spelling, eh?) It’s based on the Voltech system, as the company is calling it, and should have a 40-mile range.
Lexus: Toyota’s luxury arm debuted a dedicated hybrid, the HS 250 h. The “entry-level luxury vehicle” has plant-based eco-plastics, according to Lexus, throughout the interior, which is 30% recyclable. The car overall is 85% recyclable, including the batteries. It’ll be on sale in late summer 2009, but no price was announced yet.
Ford: Ford was all about its new EcoBoost engine, which is an option for the Flex right now and will be available on 90% of Ford vehicles by 2013. Bill Ford Jr. announced plans to bring four new high-mileage battery vehicles to the market by 2012, declaring it “not a test program,” but a business strategy.
Chrysler: Chrysler execs were grateful for the government bailout and weren’t afraid to show it. They brought their GEM low-power electric vehicles, plus the three ENVI electric prototypes they debuted in 2008. They also brought the new Patriot EV (the second Jeep to get the EV treatment) and the Chrysler 200c EV concept, which is packed with more hi-tech bits than an iPhone.
Bentley: The high-luxury car maker made available its corporate plans to move to flex fuels in its massive sedans and convertibles. It also announced a new biofuel car that would debut in Geneva this March. Oh, and they brought champagne. Yum.
Mini: Mini brought its E electric car and talked about its program to get a fleet of 500 test cars in Los Angeles and New York City, and it debuted a new convertible that is more fuel efficient and emits less carbon dioxide than the previous model.
That’s all for now. More press conferences tomorrow, including a new plug-in hybrid sports car concept from Fisker.
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