On Tuesday November 27, 2007, Google announced a new initiative to produce renewable energy at low costs to the consumer, but more importantly, cheaper than coal. Officially known as RE
Eliminating coal, is another step to be taken in reducing green house gases, with coal supplying more than 40% of the worlds electricity, Google is taking a huge step forward. Mentioned in their Press Release many times is "Cheaper than Coal" and that is huge, because no government will change their power structure unless it is cheaper and more reliable. China and India might be the first countries to switch.
The whole idea was started when Google started building and designing large energy efficient data centers. Slowly they learned the benefits and decided they wanted to apply that same creativitiy and innovation to developing cheaper renewable electricity for the masses.
"There has been tremendous work already on renewable energy. Technologies have been developed that can mature into industries capable of providing electricity cheaper than coal. Solar thermal technology, for example, provides a very plausible path to providing renewable energy cheaper than coal. We are also very interested in further developing other technologies that have potential to be cost-competitive and green. We are aware of several promising technologies, and believe there are many more out there."
-Larry Page, Co-Founder of Google
Google's goal is to 1 gigawatt of renewable energy capacity that is cheaper than coal and accomplish it in years, not decades Just to put things in perspective, 1 gigawatt can power the city the size of San Fransisco. Not only will doing this help the environment, but many people will flock to Google, once again, because nowadays, people are trying to save the planet.
Google plans to work with two companies to develop and design large scale renewable energy projects. eSolar Inc and Makani Power Inc, which both specialize in different aspects of renewable energy, will both provide a huge asset to Google as they pave the way for a brighter future.
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