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Towards more renewable energy posted to Google’s blog by Larry Page, Co-Founder and President of Products:
To lead this effort, we’re looking for a world-class team. We need creative and motivated entrepreneurs and technologists with expertise in a broad range of areas, including materials science, physics, chemistry, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, land acquisition and management, power transmission and substations, construction, and regulatory issues. Join us. And if you’re interested, read about our previous work toward a clean energy future
Very cool. And I think something Google might be able to pull off well. It is also true this may be a distraction and not work well. For many companies that would be my guess for how it would play out. Google has done an exceptional job of allowing engineers to do what they do best. And I think there is a chance they can translate that into effectively managing such a project as this. Google continues to try what they believe even if that is not the conventional path. Good for them.
Related: posts on energy – posts on Google management – Google’s cheaper-than-coal target – Wind Power – Large-Scale, Cheap Solar Electricity – 12 Stocks for 10 Years Update – Larry Page and Sergey Brin Interview Webcast – Google’s Renewable Energy Cheaper than Coal (press release)
Google’s big bet on renewable energy
As part of the initiative, Google said that it will invest tens of millions of dollars in renewable energy, spread over research and development and related investments, in 2008. “Solar isn’t currently cheaper than coal,” Larry Page, Google’s co-founder said in a conference call. “That’s the point of this – to get it there.” Google, which dubbed the project “Renewable Energy Cheaper than Coal,” stands to benefit from cheaper electricity by reducing the costs of running of its vast data centers, which suck up large amounts of energy. Executives declined to discuss the exact amount electricity used in the facilities.
Google also hopes to license any technology spawned from the project to other companies so that they too can reduce their reliance of more polluting forms of energy while saving money. Google raised the possibility that it will collect licensing, but co-founder Sergey Brin insisted that the goal isn’t to rake in big profits.
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As part of its plan, Google intends to hire engineers and energy experts, who will start work on what the company described as a “significant effort on solar thermal technology” in addition to geothermal energy. Google has pledged to become carbon neutral as a company by the end of the year.
February 23rd, 2008 at 5:09 pm
165 F water, pumped three-quarters of a mile from Chena’s 700-ft.-deep production well, enters the evaporator. After circulating through pipes, the water, now 135 F, is reinjected into the reservoir at a well 300 ft. from the power plant…
April 30th, 2008 at 11:21 am
“There’s a reason we talk about 70/20/10, where 70% of our resources are spent in our core business and 10% end up in unrelated projects, like energy or whatever…”
June 28th, 2008 at 6:08 am
I’m glad to see google spending there money on something usefull. This is highly needed, and i dont even want to talk about consequenses.
August 19th, 2008 at 5:36 pm
[...] Google is investing huge sums in renewable energy with the aim of cheaper than coal renewable energy. Google.org (the philanthropic arm of Google) announced $10.25 million in investments in a breakthrough energy technology called Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS). [...]
October 4th, 2008 at 1:07 am
I’m tired of always hearing about how things are GOING to change and how in ‘this’ many years ‘this’ is going to happen. Why can’t world attention shift from a focal point like war to something more productive like our earth and the air we breath? It’s frustrating to know just how easy it would be for all the powerful decision makers in the world to come together and actually make a change that benefits everyone. Oil is a multi-billion dollar a year industry, and because the demand for energy will always exist, all of the key players in this industry could simply reinvest a 1/3 of their profits back into building sustainable energy farms, and gradually shift their profit sources to much cleaner ones, as the demand for energy will stay the same, their is no reason the source cannot change.
December 6th, 2008 at 3:00 pm
With most companies I would be very skeptical delving into area pretty far removed from their core business would likely not prove an effective strategy. But I believe Google can be successful with such efforts…
January 6th, 2009 at 6:54 am
What a great inititaive set by Google!
It seems that now that they’ve conquered the net, they want to move to even more lucrative business opportunities.
Google is reknown for making things better for the public – so…
Perhaps in a few years Google will be our green power supplier of choice
April 26th, 2009 at 12:22 am
It is now April of 2009, many that followed their guts and invested in renewable energy are now reaping a big profit. With the huge incentive from the United State Govt. they should be jumping for joy as more money role their way. It is not too late to join with your money and ‘technical know how’