Google's New Goal of Green - 12/6/07

Meghan Carroll
Beyond Fossil Fuel Columnist

Google is attempting another way to help ease the cost of electricity by using alternative energy from wind and the sun.  They are spending hundreds of millions of dollars into this venture.  "If Google realizes its goal, the cost of solar power should fall by 25 to 50 percent," co-founder Larry Page said in an interview.  Google anticipates producing a cleaner-burning electricity to achieve their own needs and then they hope to sell power to others or license the technology.  They expect that if this goes as planned that Google will be in the electricity business in an extremely large way and they hope to make a lot of money from this also. 

There is a long list of dirty power generation that is leading to a potential disastrous climate change and these companies are trying to find an answer.  Google hopes to stand out among retailers like Wal-Mart, Cisco Systems, Microsoft, IBM, and Intel.  They have financial muscle and it is a known brand.  Google is not out of place in this line of work as one might think.  Google has growing power needs and co founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin have been interested in alternative energy and electric cars.  They are using power from one of the country’s biggest solar power installations at this time.  They also have Al Gore as their advisor.  Gore won a Nobel Prize for educating people about global warming.

The amount of power that Google uses is kept within the company and guarded very carefully.  Google has an expanding need for more power as they introduce more products and services requiring more computing capacity.  Google wants to help the problem and not be a cause of the problem.  One gigawatt of power from renewable energy could supply a city the size of San Francisco and that is the goal of Google.  They hope to accomplish this within years and not decades.  This renewable energy would be priced below the rates of electricity that is generated by coal.  Google believes that they can connect technology with making the world a cleaner place.  They are reportedly spending at least $20 million next year to finance this project and research.  They hope that 20 to 30 employees will join the project and anticipates that more will want to join in.  Google.org is investing millions into companies that specialize in renewable energy.  They are already working with eSolar Inc and Makani Power.  These companies specialize in solar thermal power and wind power.  Google makes the effort; let’s hope that they meet their goal.  It would not only benefit their business but benefit the world.

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