Google partners on device to monitor home energy
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Google Inc is partnering with privately held Energy Inc to provide households with free energy management software, bypassing utilities' smart meters and potentially boosting energy efficiency, the company said on its blog on Monday.Google launched in February a Web tool called PowerMeter, which lets consumers monitor how much electricity they use at home. The catch was that they had to have a smart meter installed by their utility. For the past few months, a few hundred customers have tested the software.
Now, consumers can buy Energy Inc's power-usage measuring device, called TED 5000, costing about $200, and use Google's software on top of it, without ever needing a smart meter. More...
10-06-2009 10:41
Google working on "smart" plug-in hybrid charging
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Google Inc is in the early stages of looking at ways to write software that would fully integrate plug-in hybrid vehicles to the power grid, minimize strain on the grid and help utilities manage vehicle charging load. More...09-30-2009 10:00
Google plans new mirror for cheaper solar power
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Google is disappointed with the lack of breakthrough investment ideas in the green technology sector but the company is working to develop its own new mirror technology that could reduce the cost of building solar thermal plants by a quarter or more."We've been looking at very unusual materials for the mirrors both for the reflective surface as well as the substrate that the mirror is mounted on," the company's green energy czar Bill Weihl told Reuters Global Climate and Alternative Energy Summit in San Francisco on Wednesday.
Google, known for its Internet search engine, in late 2007 said it would invest in companies and do research of its own to produce affordable renewable energy within a few years.
The company's engineers have been focused on solar thermal technology, in which the sun's energy is used to heat up a substance that produces steam to turn a turbine. More...
09-10-2009 09:41
Current Focus
Latest News
- Google seeks to speed up Web searches
- Court allows warrantless cell location tracking
- California's online voter registration plan on hold
- Google boss Eric Schmidt warns on social use of media
- Oracle sues Google over Android
- FCC stops closed-door Internet policy meetings as Google, Verizon strike side deal
- Snapshot of global internet speeds revealed
- China renews Google license, ending standoff
- U.S. aims to detect cyber infrastructure attacks: report
- Hackers target Microsoft Windows XP support system