Is Google's Renewable Energy Plan WHAT IT SEEMS?

摘要

When I first heard about Google's latest announcement, I thought the company was going to rely com-pletely on renewable energy to directly energize its data centers. I was surprised by such an achievement, as data centers operate 24/7 and wind and the sun are not constantly available resources. But it turned out that is not the case—yet. Google's renewable energy plan is just an excuse for all the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that it will keep generating as it mostly energizes its data centers with fossil fuels. In addition to delving into the significance of this announcement ourselves, we asked some experts to weigh in on this trend and the reasons that data-center owners are making these moves.