Google Sightseeing takes you on tour of the world as seen from satellite, using the free Google Earth program, or Google Maps in your web browser. Each weekday your guides James and Alex present new weird and wonderful sights as suggested by readers.

The editors: James & Alex

The Googleplex

Posted by James Turnbull, Monday, 17th December 2007

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As part of the December 07 image update Google have updated their own headquarters in Mountain View, California.

Compared to the older imagery1 the most obvious difference is that the Googeplex has been absolutely covered in solar panels.

Installed in October 2006, the panels are the world’s largest solar panel installation on a corporate campus in the United States! Er, hang on…

Still, Google should be commended for the project which generates 30% of their peak electricity requirements. Read more on the project’s homepage, which also promises some live stats2.


  1. Currently still available in Google Maps, but probably not for long. 

  2. The stats are unfortunately broken at the time of writing, but will apparently be back online soon. 

4 Responses to 'The Googleplex'

  1. rob says:

    And I bet those are some big electricity requirements!

  2. Eduardo Maio says:

    A very nice iniciative from Google, didn’t know they had the plex full of solar panels. What’s next, a hydrogen filling station? ;)

  3. Solafia says:

    The “world’s largest solar panel installation on a corporate campus in the United States” ?
    Doesn’t make much sense ?

  4. James says:

    @ Solafia: We often feature “world’s largest” things that, to prevent it being a lie, someone has had to tack a few extra disclaimers onto the end.

    You could call it the larger than any other solar panel installation in the whole world, just as long as the other solar panel is on a corporate campus, and is located within the United States.

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