Google thinks they’re all cool and “not evil” for announcing the planned installation of 1.6 megawatts of solar power for their corporate campus.
I was pretty impressed with that, until I saw that Wal-Mart is starting with installation of solar power for 22 stores that will generate up to 20,000 megawatts of electricity per year.
Take that, Google! Wal-Mart is laughing at your tiny megawattage.
Please note, I am assuming that Google’s numbers are based on yearly generation amounts like Wal-Mart. If I’m wrong, please correct me in the comments.
Wal-Mart says the the aggregate purchase could be one of the United States’ if not the world’s, top-10 largest ever solar power initiatives.
 The solar power pilot project is a major step toward Wal-Mart’s goal of being supplied by 100 percent renewable energy. Each solar power generating system installed can provide up to 30 percent of the power for the store on which it is installed. By Wal-Mart’s estimates, installing the solar power systems will help reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 6,500-10,000 metric tons per year. “Pilot project stores are expected to achieve savings over their current utility rates immediately-as soon as the first day of operation,” said David Ozment, director of energy for Wal-Mart.
Let’s hope the new solar system saves them a bundle, since they are having the worst sales decline in 28 years.
In other Wal-Mart news, they’ve announced that they are working with their suppliers to make sure that all of the compact fluorescent bulbs that they sell have dramatically lower mercury content than the typical CFL bulb.
To reduce the amount of mercury in its CFLs, Wal-Mart worked closely with manufacturers GE, Royal Philips, Osram Sylvania and Lights of America.
All four suppliers committed to achieving a greater reduction in mercury content than the 5 mg standard set by the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) earlier this year. These suppliers will also adhere to clean production techniques that will minimize mercury pollution from factories manufacturing CFLs.“People concerned about the environment and their health can buy these CFLs with a clear conscience,” said Noah Horowitz, senior scientist with the Natural Resources Defense Council. “With the commitments announced today, the amount of mercury in each bulb will become vanishingly small.
Clean production techniques for manufacturing the bulbs will further boost the environmental benefit. In fact, the energy savings delivered through the use of CFLs will actually reduce more mercury pollution from coal-fired power plants than is added through manufacture of the bulbs.”
Did anyone else see that Penn and Teller TV show on Showtime about Wal-Mart?
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This is not a fair comparison. Google only has one headquarters. Walmart has hundreds, (thousands?) of stores. How many KW is Walmart saving PER SITE?
I think it’s great that Walmart is doing this. But Walmart sucks the money out of every community it goes to. And it offers poor benefits, if any at all, forcing employees to depend on local social services. Since those employees then must rely on the local taxpayer base for some basic services, Walmart essentially therefore also sucks money out of the local tax base.
Well, if you divide 20,000 megawatts by 22 sites, you get 909 megawatts per site per year.
That’s still quite a lot more solar power per site.
You could compare solar power to market valuation:
Google: 143.28B market value compared to 1.6 megawatts
Wal-Mart: 196.20B market value compared to 20,000 megawatts
You could compare net income to number of megawatts of solar.
Google: 3.49B in 2006 net income compared to 1.6 megawatts
Wal-Mart: 12.18B in 2006 net income compared to 20,000 megawatts
You could compare amount of solar power to number of employees.
Google: 10,000 employees compared to 1.6 megawatts 0.00016 per employee
Wal-Mart: 1.3 million employees compared to 20,000 megawatts 0.01538 per employee.
Any way you look at it, it is a substantial amount of solar power we are talking about, in my opinion.
I’m personally a Target guy, as far as where I shop. But I don’t see Target doing any of this, at least that I have heard of.
That sort of makes me curious. Does Target really pay so much better than Wal-Mart and have that much better benefits? Anyone know the answer?
Honestly, God bless’em, but you gotta realize both these decisions are cost effective for Wal and Goog. They make money long term on this deal, so don’t get all sappy an teary eye’d yet.
Check this sick graph showing spending
on the Iraq war Vs. spending on renewable energy
Hey guys, you need to get your facts right!
The 1.6 MW that Google reports is the rated output of their array. In one day they generate just under 10 MW or about 2600 MWH per year for their one campus. Walmart is generating the 20,000 MW of power for their 22+ stores or only about 1000 MW per year per store. In any case, both companies should be commended for their great advancement toward a green economy.
You are confusing power with energy. Power is energy delivered per unit of time. 1 watt (power) is 1 Joule (energy) per second. If you take a unit of power and multiply by a unit of time, then you get back to a unit of energy- like a KWH.
It’s analogous to speed and distance traveled. The comparison above is like 1 person bragging that their car can go 100 MPH and then someone else countering that their car went 10,000 Miles last year
Google’s solar power output is 1.6 MW, but given the time that the sun shines on their location in the course of a year, they produce about 2.6 Million KWH of energy per year. WalMart’s proposed 20 Million KWH of solar energy per year is nearly 8 times more… impressive, but not as much as the summary above made it sound like.
Thanks for the clarification!
You are right. 8 times bigger doesn’t sound like nearly as much when you consider that it is divided between 22 Wal-Mart stores.
I can guarantee you that Wal-Mart will buy their solar panels from kids in China and Google will have some cool design that makes them extra spiffy. Its just how these companies do; they’re predictable.
I don’t know who this other Pablo is, but I have to agree. Google’s 1.6 MW is generating capacity while WalMart’s 20,000 MW is actual energy produced and should actually by MWH. This is equivalent to 910 MWH/year/store and can be achieved with a system that has a capacity of roughly 415 kW. By comparison, my parents have a residential PV system that is 1.5 kW.
Hi Pablo from AskPablo.org!
I know who you are. I enjoy your site!
I am going to add an update to the bottom of the post that clarifies how wrong I am.
As someone who is about to have a 2.8 kilowatt solar system installed at my own workplace next week, I suppose there’s not much excuse for my mix up of how the numbers work in this post.
Thank you for your comment.
I am glad someone noticed the difference in figures…power vs. energy. I think it is very important for those people working for a more sustainable way of working as a society to realize how important it is to be accurate with figures. Skeptics and naysayers love it when people throw around figures without knowing what they are saying.
That said, we should commend both Google and Walmart (hard to believe I am saying that). Their adoption of sustainable operations goes a long way in bringing it into the mainstream.
this is a dumb post… you mention the amount of energy that they are generating, but not the amount USED, or excess needed. Not only that but you seem to insult google which is one of the best places to work in the world, and say wal mart is good which is one of the worst places to work at in America…
You may be surprised to know that the #1 PV module used by the thousands in Germany is less expensive than comparable Chinese product and is made in the USA.
Google.org is where one can learn about RechargeIT.
While CalCars.org accurately presents utility electricity @ equivalent to $0.75/gallon in an EV or PHEV (plug in electric hybrid vehicle); un-subsidized PV charging an EV or PHEV is still <$3.00/gallon equivalent. We produce tonnes of CO2 and pollution squandering money on gasoline and diesel when PV is cheaper. The true “cost” of nukes, oil and coal is more than PV.
I suppose the main upside I see to this is that it might make solar power more accessible in the minds of the average joe knucklehead that shops at wal-mart regularly. So, I like that, but wal-mart itself, notsomuch.
America, sliding out from under the oil yoke one Solar cell at a time! Have we seen the light soon enough to save our Souls? I hope so, the Oil Barons get richer every day, and even printing press money can’t keep up with their greed and the sharing of the world’s oil with the Asians and the stronger more stable “Yuan”! Diesels for Americans! 40% more efficient and pollute less with Mercedes Blue TEC technologies! Way to Go!
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