Tuesday, March 28, 2006

High-Tech Firms Move Into Potato Country I recently got a Kill-A-Watt meter. The first thing I plugged into it was the power strip that supplies my little home office computer setup. This includes a big laptop, printer and external disk drive. It arrived just last Wednesday so I really don't have good numbers yet. A full day of work, plus very light weekend surfing has used 2.59 Kwh. My current rate, including WindSource adjustments is 9.755 cents/Kwh. So I spend about a quarter a day running my computer. That does not include the Wireless Router and Cable Modem that are on a different plug. Anyway, this article on Excite says Microsoft, Yahoo, Google and Time Warner are all looking at property near a Hydro plant. The draw appears to be the region's relatively cheap land, inexpensive hydropower and wide-open space... It will interesting to see if similar companies move to the southwest to take advantage of cheap solar and wind power. Transmission is typically a problem in new wind plants since they tend to be far from population centers. Bringing the power users to the wind would be a good fit. But data centers also need consistent power, so lines from the fossil plant would still have to be built. Oh Well... 8:35:47 AM    comment []

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