Pig Power! Google Signs Up

Pig Power! Google Signs Up | TPM Idea Lab
now if they'd just take on factory farming...
Google last week revealed for the first time that it consumed enough electricity to power 200,000 homes in 2010. The company also said that it intends to source more than a third of its electricity from clean sources by 2012.
One way that it's trying to minimize its carbon footprint is by signing up for carbon offsets.
One of these projects comes from Duke University, where a new facility uses hog waste to generate power. Duke developed the pilot project to demonstrate the economic feasibility of capturing methane emissions from large hog farms and converting those emissions to electricity.

Google has just announced that it will take on part of the operating and maintenance costs in exchange for carbon offsets, to help achieve its carbon-neutral goal.

Duke engineered the new facility as an open source design that is freely available to the hog industry. However, even though the design is free, hog farmers may be hesitant to invest in the equipment. The school hopes that Google's involvement will provide some reassurance that the economics are solid.