LTM's approach required producing, assembling and shipping a full 2GHz/1GB computer, plus PV, PV-controller and router, all to serve a single site. And it's even turned off some of the time!

Google, on the other hand, is more like a fleet of trains; sure, each one is a honkin' beast, but it also transports thousands of passengers/sites at once, possibly millions in its lifetime.

The bicycle analogy doesn't really work, because a bicycle is just a performance attachment to the real vehicle: the human.

This way you can have 24/7 fully green content delivery to consumers.

Although that being said we could just try to cover the earth with as many generators everywhere and then fully connect the grids.

This is the easier route: you do this by having as many businesses as possible purchase renewables PPAs, where they're specifically contracting for renewable energy.

https://www.utilitydive.com/news/as-corporate-renewable-buyi...

But CPUs have an incredibly high embodied energy, we should aim for full utilization of servers, regardless of the source of that energy.

If it's three CPUs with carbon-neutral electricity, or one CPU with electricity from coal, the latter is the responsible choice.

If no, then why. I can explain my confusion if needed.

To be fair, these are artificial choices, and that's not even what lowtech was doing (they have a battery). I was responding to the post about the CDNs that stop working at night.

Their DCs are globally distributed, so their timings on when they'd actually be doing the heavy lifting is shuffled around.