Can Solar Power be transferred via the internet?

[Phil Mac]

It's seems to be what there suggesting here http://www.epicado.com/solar-power-hosting/ anyone have any idea if this is viable?

[Russ Bailey]

They are only trying to force their opinion on others - nothing more.

[Phil Mac]

I thought it was a good idea, if you think about its exporting energy via the internet. I just what'd to know if that's possible.

What they seem to be suggesting is that by hosting your website in a country where solar power is plentiful rather than in a country where its not you can reduce the carbon etc.

There saying google stop this that is there own agenda but is not a bad concept.

Anyone know the actual implications of long distance hosting on power usage.

[Russ Bailey]

Cost would already tend to push power intensive operations to cheap power supply areas.

[Phil Mac]

Think you've hit the nail on the head there. They seem to have identified Google as prohibiting this natural expansion due, apparently google uses sites hosted in specific areas to fill there localised index's. ie if you want to be in google.co.uk you need or its best for you to host in the UK.

They have a point this might be something but only if it doesn't consume more energy to do this or even if it did it would be a question of where the energy came from Oil powered station in rainy uk or sunny solar in the us.

I think they might have something there you know I think i'll add my mark.

[Russ Bailey]

The great green google not doing something perfect? How can be???

Everyone says how wonderful google is but they don't do anything about the junk ads (the paid for ones) and they actually target them for the shyster behind them.

As far as İ am concerned, where any company gets their power from is their problem and not mine. Unless it would raise my costs then İ get interested.

[Aaron Handford]

Interesting post! I think this indeed is a good point. Google's algorithms supposedly do favor website's with IPs within the geographic location of a Google users regional search. I remember reading that a few years ago, does anyone know the latest word from Google? This may not be the case anymore. Google themselves offer webhosting via "Google sites" and they do not have servers in every country, so it seems unlikely to me that they would penalize their own customers like that.

I think most likely Google still favors websites with the correct country specific tld (such as .ca for Canada).

I think it makes sense to "not-punish" a website because they choose to host with green energy. Our data center is based in Iceland and I'd hate to think that our customers placement in local searches were being penalized by the geographic location of their IP.

On a side note, I partly disagree with the logic of the epicado.com's argument. He/She seems to suggest that merely hosting your site in a country with access to potential renewable energy is enough. If that is his/her argument then I disagree. I think the missing piece with most supposedly "green" web hosts is the source of their data enters energy. It is very important that the energy directly powering data centers comes straight from renewable/clean sources. Greenpeace agrees (http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/campaigns/climate-change/cool-it/ITs-carbon-footprint/). That is why we chose a data center in Iceland (running on geothermal power) for our own web hosting company.

[Russ Bailey]

This is green in the worst meaning possible of the word - as in green nazis.

[Aaron Handford]

Russ, I wouldn't go that far, but there are some forces that could lead into a sort of "green" totalitarianism. For example, Bolivia has give legal rights to the earth (http://positivenews.org.uk/2011/peace_democracy/justice/4377/bolivia-to-give-legal-rights-to-the-earth/). This is good in theory, but who defines those rights? Answer: the forces in power!
This is green in the worst meaning possible of the word - as in green nazis.

[Shane mari Besh]

Solar power is the conversion of sunlight into electricity, either directly using photovoltaics (PV), or indirectly using concentrated solar power (CSP). Concentrated solar power systems use lenses or mirrors and tracking systems to focus a large area of sunlight into a small beam. Photovoltaics convert light into electric current using the photoelectric effect. It is possible to transfer it via internet.

[Penny Walters]

How is it possible?

Solar power is the conversion of sunlight into electricity, either directly using photovoltaics (PV), or indirectly using concentrated solar power (CSP). Concentrated solar power systems use lenses or mirrors and tracking systems to focus a large area of sunlight into a small beam. Photovoltaics convert light into electric current using the photoelectric effect. It is possible to transfer it via internet.

__________
home monitoring (https://www.alertme.com/)

[Dave Schwartz]

It is not possible to transfer bulk power over the internet but it is possible to transfer the product of the work done by that power over the internet.

Internet sites run on massive server farms that consume large amounts of power in serving out information all over the world. So if you can find a location with both good connectivity and renewable energy, those megabytes sent all over the world have effectively transferred the kilowatts used to produce them.

[Mike Green]

No guys, you can't transfer any power over the internet other than that inherent in the signal carrying the communication to your hardware, usually a few miliwatts, no more, and that was not transferred, the power was used on each line from source to destination, the power taken locally.
The concept discussed here is the political prefference for using renewable energy wherever possible.
along another vein, the transferring (selling) of carbon credits from renewable energy, could very well be done on line.
in fact an on line bourse for carbon credits, (or green credits in some countries) could be a business of the near future.

[Penny Walters]

This is the biggest problem that i've come across, some places say you can and others say you can't...

[Mike Green]

I do beleive i don't understand the discussion.
What do some places allow that other places do not allow?

[Ben Colla]

This is the biggest problem that i've come across, some places say you can and others say you can't...

You cannot transfer any electricity across the internet. Most of the cables carrying the data are fibre optic and not copper and incapable of conducting electricity (and yes I'm aware that most of the cables leadng into peoples home carrying the Internet for 'the last mile' are copper, my statement stands).

[Dave Turpin]

This is the biggest problem that i've come across, some places say you can and others say you can't...

Sigh. Let us spell it out.

YOU CANNOT TRANSFER POWER ACROSS THE INTERNET.

You can, however, host websites in locations that use renewable power, thus making the internet fractionally more green in doing so.

Real companies are not going to do this. Real companies put their server banks in locations that strike a balance between economy and bandwidth.

Right now, I would say my connection is pretty green. I am on a computer powered by Columbia hydro, going through a server powered by Columbia hydro, a second server powered by Ontario Hydro, followed by a web hosting server powered by a MicroFIT array. Of course, there may be some intermediate nodes powered by coal in the Midwest US.