Google.org, the philanthropic arm of Google, plans to invest first tens of millions, then hundreds of millions of dollars into R&D for renewable energy that will be cheaper than coal. They want to create breakthrough technology.
“We have gained expertise in designing and building large-scale, energy-intensive facilities by building efficient data centers,” said Larry Page, Google Co-founder and President of Products. “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.”
“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.)
Wow. There’s lots more too, read the press release. Let’s hope lots more foundations, businesses, and governments do the same. And hey, maybe even do it in an open source manner with everyone sharing information. After all, we all live on the same planet.
Tip: Ecogeek