[Bleep]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '[')url=http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/opinion/article/0,1299,DRMN_38_5245730,00.html]Power gridlock (link)[/url]

Colorado's electricity infrastructure needs jump-start on expansions

By Ray Gifford And Adam Peters
December 30, 2006
Techno-pundit George Gilder toured an Ask.com server farm not long ago and described his experience in an article written for Wired.

Ask.com is the fastest-growing search engine on the Web. But the Ask.com server farm, which is currently housed on the East Coast, probably won't be located there much longer.

There isn't enough available electricity to power the servers, hard drives and air-conditioning equipment that is needed to meet Ask.com's burgeoning business needs, so the company is scoping out property in the Columbia River Valley of the Pacific Northwest, following competitors like Google, Microsoft and Yahoo! in a quest for affordable and reliable sources of energy.

...skip...

Standing alone, the five leading Internet search engines will consume 5 gigawatts of electricity in 2006. That equates to the amount of electricity needed to run the city of Las Vegas.

[Loki]

Google has already set up a large facility in the Columbia Gorge. Lots of cheap hydropower here. Who needs salmon anyway?

[coyote]

That's stunning. I had no idea.

[Carlhole]

How do Google and those other make so much money?

[morph]

wow, another fact i can add to my brains collection lol

[Starvid]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Carlhole', 'H')ow do Google and those other make so much money?

[inquiry]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Starvid', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Carlhole', 'H')ow do Google and those other make so much money?

[davep]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('inquiry', 'C')an you say GoodBye Google??

[frankthetank]

They should just all pitch some stockholders money in and buy a big nuclear power plant and set it up in North Dakota. Hell, in the winter just open the doors, who needs fans or ac?

Think of all the waste heat that is thrown away from these server farms... They should try to find a use for it???HOt tubs?

[Harlequin]

I'm no tech-savvy but I think computers have to be kept at a certain internal temperature to stop them from messing up.

They probably do get their power from Nuklear plants.

[Concerned]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Carlhole', 'H')ow do Google and those other make so much money?

[Carlhole]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Concerned', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Carlhole', 'H')ow do Google and those other make so much money?

[SoothSayer]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', 'I was wondering what exactly were the primary profit leaders at Google. ')
Adwords must be key.

I run a tiny business ... BUT ... I spend MANY $1000 annually on Adwords.

Why? Because they work.

Scale that revenue across the globe.

[grabby]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('inquiry', '
')When TSHTF and the Infinite Growth Ponzi Pyramid Schemes of Capitalism can no longer be propped up by the vacuum of free energy, when businesses close their doors left and right and Big Corporations all begin downsizing, merging, and filing bankruptcy, whats going to feed Google's Energy Las Vegas?

[Licho]

Lol, they meant 5000 GWh over one year!! (Lousy journalists don't even know basic unit's and can't differentiate energy from power)

That's not so much and is far less than Las Vegas needs. 5000 GWh per year equals to 570MW of constant power, which is much less than Las Vegas needs ..
it's just about a quarter of my nearest nuclear powerplant .. or about 1.2% of currently installed wind power in EU.

[Armageddon]

It sure did seem out of whack. Thanks for clarifying.