Google's new rooftop solar initiative looks to bring low cost power to residential homes

Justin Kahn

Posts: 752   +6

Apple has been in the news recently regarding its environmental initiatives, but Google also ranked quite well on Greenpeace's most recent clean energy index and now the company is set to push its environmental programs even further. Like Apple, Google also makes use of clean energy sources to power its datacenters, and will now look to offer lower cost renewable power sources to residential homes.

The search giant and solar cell company SunPower Corporation have put together $250 million to purchase rooftop solar panels and lease them back to residents at a "typically lower" price than your average power bill. "So by participating in this program, you don’t just help the environment—you can also save money," a Google Blog post reads.

Google is putting in $100 million of its own cash, with the other $150 coming from SunPower, but there is no direct details on how the system works beyond SunPower being responsible for both making the panels and managing the installation process with home owners. There is also no word as to when the project is slated to get underway yet.

According to Google, the company has now invested more than $1 billion across 16 different renewable energy products around the world, and this is its third residential rooftop solar panel initiative after Solar City and Clean Power Finance. Yesterday, the company announced its "biggest renewable energy purchase yet" which will see its Iowa utility partners supply its data center facilities "with up to 407 megawatts of wind energy."

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I wonder if this will work out. Solar companies are struggling right now because of Chinese competition.
 
Solar really is the way to go. Just imagine if every house had their own panels when the grid gets shut down. No one would notice the difference.
 
With buying investing in robotics & other science fields than IT only shows there future plan is to be a company like "BUY n LARGE" in Wall-E movie.....
 
Solar really is the way to go. Just imagine if every house had their own panels when the grid gets shut down. No one would notice the difference.
Depends on the amount of daylight converted into energy vs the usage of energy. Some households use a lot of energy and when you have days with less light intensity less power flows into the house. Would be a pain in the *ss if the television stops working during ur favorite game.
 
Depends on the amount of daylight converted into energy vs the usage of energy. Some households use a lot of energy and when you have days with less light intensity less power flows into the house. Would be a pain in the *ss if the television stops working during ur favorite game.

Those are good points which will hopefully be resolved in later versions of panels. They're always finding new solutions to old problems all the time.
 
cdrking, my favorite cheap tech gadgets and accessories is now selling solar panels on most store branches.
since I'm not good at mathematics, I wonder if a Philippine consumer would have a good value compared to purchased electricity from the electric company/national power grid.
 
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Depends on the amount of daylight converted into energy vs the usage of energy. Some households use a lot of energy and when you have days with less light intensity less power flows into the house. Would be a pain in the *ss if the television stops working during ur favorite game.

Those are good points which will hopefully be resolved in later versions of panels. They're always finding new solutions to old problems all the time.

and you have to remember that the sun is not always shining. Thus it is always good to have more than one source of electricity.
 
and you have to remember that the sun is not always shining. Thus it is always good to have more than one source of electricity.
Even if the light of the sun is hidden behind thick clouds the Solar panels will collect energy. This energy will only be really poor compared to when the sun is fully shining onto the solar panels. I think if you would use the chimney by making it cylindrical and placing small vertical rotorblades (Like an concept on lanterns near the highway) you would be able to extract wind and solar. Both probably still not enough to power a daily household but at least you'll close up the gap....
 
I've seen one solar panel installation in person and it used storage batteries to help mitigate those periods when there is little to no sunlight available. I've only seen this one installation so I don't know how typical it is. Despite the batteries there will be times when this house will draw from the grid. I don't remember the type of batteries used but they were not cutting edge since the installation was done years ago when the technology was less advanced. At least the solar panels themselves have been updated.
 
and you have to remember that the sun is not always shining. Thus it is always good to have more than one source of electricity.
Even if the light of the sun is hidden behind thick clouds the Solar panels will collect energy. This energy will only be really poor compared to when the sun is fully shining onto the solar panels. I think if you would use the chimney by making it cylindrical and placing small vertical rotorblades (Like an concept on lanterns near the highway) you would be able to extract wind and solar. Both probably still not enough to power a daily household but at least you'll close up the gap....

I think you are forgetting night.
 
Imagine being a airline pilot and every house has solar panels on it reflecting light back into your eyes as you are trying to land...

Maybe its not that bad but something to think about don't you think?
 
Imagine being a airline pilot and every house has solar panels on it reflecting light back into your eyes as you are trying to land...

Maybe its not that bad but something to think about don't you think?
There are generally few houses that near airport runways unless they are small airports and even then it is rare.
 
I think you are forgetting night.
No, because at night the energy consumption is the lowest. During daytime you should collect all the energy for the night. so you allways need a place to store the energy and have an higher average of collected energy vs used energy...
 
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