Google plans renewable energy push

Eric Auchard, Reuters 28 Nov 07;

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Google Inc. said on Tuesday the Web services and online advertising group plans to spend hundreds of millions of dollars in coming years to promote a new push to encourage cheap renewable electricity.

The project, known as Renewable Energy Cheaper Than Coal, is hiring engineers and targeted investment financing at advanced solar thermal power, wind power technologies, enhanced geothermal systems and other new technologies, Google said.

Google is, in effect, taking advantage of its growing mountain of cash, global brand recognition and mushrooming market capitalization as a pulpit to campaign for alternative energy. The company's leaders argue that the time is ripe for investments in innovative research to cut energy costs.

"Our goal is to produce one gigawatt of renewable energy capacity that is cheaper than coal. We are optimistic this can be done in years, not decades," Larry Page, Google's co-founder and president of products, said in a statement.

One gigawatt can power a city the size of San Francisco.

Google is seeking to capitalize on the recent excitement among Silicon Valley entrepreneurs to apply the risk taking that computer, biotech and Internet businesses are famous for to the field of alternative energy production.

Google's latest moves come as the price of a barrel of oil nears $100 and coal, which produces 40 percent of the world's electricity, faces regulatory and environmental pressures that could drive up prices.

Working with its philanthropic arm Google.org, the company said it plans to spend tens of millions of dollars in 2008 on research and development and related efforts in renewable energy.

Eventually, the Mountain View, California-based company said it will spend hundreds of millions of dollars in "breakthrough renewable energy projects which generate positive returns."

"Renewable Energy Cheaper Than Coal" is hiring engineers and energy experts to lead its research and development work. It said it will begin on solar thermal technology and will also investigate enhanced geothermal systems and other areas.

Page said Google gained experience in designing large-scale energy projects through its investments in energy-efficient computer data centers. The roofs of Google's headquarters buildings also boasts one of the biggest solar energy installations of any U.S. company.

"We want to apply the same creativity and innovation to the challenge of generating renewable electricity at globally significant scale and produce it cheaper than from coal," Page said in the statement.

(Reporting by Eric Auchard in San Francisco; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe and Andre Grenon)

Google's cheaper-than-coal target
BBC News 27 Nov 07;

Search giant Google is investing hundreds of millions of dollars in renewable energy technologies.

The Californian firm wants to make green energy sources of electricity cheaper than that produced from coal.

Its new initiative is known as RE < C, and will focus initially on solar thermal power, wind power and enhanced geothermal systems.

The support, to be channelled through philanthropic arm Google.org, will go to firms, R&D labs and universities.

Google also plans to do research itself, and will be hiring its own engineers and energy experts. It says renewables have to be taken to the next level if fossil fuel burning's impact on the climate is to be tackled effectively.

Need for speed

"With talented technologists, great partners and significant investments, we hope to rapidly push forward," said Larry Page, Google co-founder.

"Our goal is to produce one gigawatt of renewable energy capacity that is cheaper than coal. We are optimistic this can be done in years, not decades."

One gigawatt can power a city the size of San Francisco, one of California's biggest cities.

Google is already backing fuel-efficient cars. Google.org is giving out grants to help commercialise plug-in hybrids and fully electric vehicles.

The company itself has a 1.6-megawatt solar panel system installed at its headquarters in Mountain View, California.

Google said it expected to focus its early efforts on solar thermal technology, and would be spending "tens of millions" of dollars in 2008 on the RE < C initiative. In the future, however, this support should grow considerably.

Positive feedback

The firm has already begun working with what it regards as promising approaches in the state of California itself.

These include Makani Power Inc, which is developing ways to generate electricity by harnessing high-altitude winds.

Google thinks it has to get renewables producing electricity for a price of 1-3 cents per kilowatt-hour.

"Solar is currently substantially more expensive than coal, depending on the type that you have; but we see a lot of evidence from all the people working hard on this that the costs can come down quite a bit," said Larry Page.

"It's an ambitious goal to get it cheaper than coal but it seems obtainable; and certainly if we can, it will have a huge impact."