Guru3D.com going green

Hey there and welcome to an article related to .. a decade Guru3D.com - and guess what ? Guru3D is now Solar Powered.

It was many, many moons ago when this editor and site owner was thinking something something along these lines: if Guru3D.com would ever grow intensely big, we just have to factor in that serving you the content as presented on Guru3D.com will also have an adverse negative effect on the environment. You see, servers require energy; creating that energy means dumping lot's of CO2 into the sky, and as such this has an effect on the environment.

With the worldwide climate changes in mind we felt we just had to give something back, and what moment would be better then a decade Guru3D.com? So we started to ask ourselves questions, what is the one thing you can do to compensate carbon dioxide levels created by our servers? Yep, creating an alternative energy production installation that is environmentally friendly. Easier said than done, of course.

Building a water dam in my back yard really isn't option, neither is a windmill creating energy considered likely. The obvious choice we figured, was installing PV-panels (solar) and create energy from the sun to compensate the energy we draw from the grid. The good thing with the PV-panels is, you can place them anywhere you like.

Fact is though, that is an expensive project to achieve.

With the notion of going green in the back of my head, early last year the Dutch government started a subsidized program where for each Kilowatt of power create and on the grid, you get ~ 32 cents subsidized compensating the investment needed. That's where things got more interesting. As such the return point (break/even) of your investment would be roughly 12 years.

So creating a solar grid compatible array will from day one of usage mean saving CO2 as you make green energy you can use yourself. It is an ideal solution compensating what we need to run the servers in the datacenter. But sure, you read it right, it takes 12 years before this project breaks even. And as such we stumbled into the problem everybody faces, making a choice to see if this is financially viable and most of all doable.

Back in April 2008, with the upcoming 10th anniversary of Guru3D.com in mind, I applied for that government subsidization and really wanted to get this project off the ground, and after months of filling out forms and dealing with the six parties involved, finally in October 2008 we got a green light to go solar.

What is Solar power? Sunlight is made of photons, small particles of energy. These photons are absorbed by and pass through the material of a solar cell or solar photovoltaic panel (PV panel). The photons 'agitate' the electrons found in the material of the photovoltaic cell. As they begin to move (or are dislodged), these are 'routed' into and creating a current. This, technically, is electricity - the movement of electrons along a path.

Wire conducts these electrons, either to batteries or in Guru3D's case, to the regular electrical system of the house, to be returned on the power grid.