Thursday 7 April 2011

tilting at windmills

Google, who is also the underwriting force behind an elusive armada of server barges that form the vertebrae of the internet's infrastructure and redundancy that float on the waves and are powered by the motion of the oceans, in sponsoring a photovoltaic park in Brandenburg--the company's first such venture in Germany. Google cannot be faulted for the timing of this project, as advocates and detractors disagree on energy policy and whether the country can be self-sufficient without nuclear energy and without importing power at a premium.

Formerly, Germany was a power-exporting country and for a place where sunlight is sometimes also at a premium and wind is not guaranteed and derives nearly equal parts from renewable, low-impact sources as it does from all others, and I believe it can easily match and surpass that deficit by practicing a bit of conservation and intelligent channels to distribute resources. Government mandates and schemes like carbon-credits have good intentions, though efforts to meet baseline standards and swap environmentally responsible behavior for pollution elsewhere is sometimes a shell-game, companies and institutions usually do not go beyond the requirement and sometimes unfortunate tradeoffs take place, like ethanol in gasoline making foodstuffs scarcer or those LED traffic lights that do not generate enough heat not to freeze over in the winter. Though regulation and practice should not be opened up to entrepreneurial reinterpretation and redrafting, to turn laws in favour of corporate interests, a bit of work in tandem could make for more efficient systems and fewer tough choices for all.