Google's Goal: Renewable Energy Cheaper than Coal

Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) today announced a new strategic initiative to develop electricity from renewable energy sources that will be cheaper than electricity produced from coal. The newly created initiative, known as RE<C, will focus initially on advanced solar thermal power, wind power technologies, enhanced geothermal systems and other potential breakthrough technologies.

In 2008, Google expects to spend tens of millions on research and development and related investments in renewable energy. As part of its capital planning process, the company also anticipates investing hundreds of millions of dollars in breakthrough renewable energy projects which generate positive returns.

"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."

"With talented technologists, great partners and significant investments, we hope to rapidly push forward. 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 Co-founder and President of Products

Coal is the primary power source for many around the world, supplying 40% of the world's electricity.  The greenhouse gases it produces are one of the greatest environmental challenges. Making electricity produced from renewable energy cheaper than coal would be a key part of reducing global greenhouse-gas emissions.

Google.org, the philanthropic arm of Google, will be a partner in this ambitious endeavor by providing funding for companies and projects with promising, scalable and potentially breakthrough energy technologies. Last summer Google.org announced an RFP as part of their RechargeIT project aiming to accelerate the adoption of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and vehicle-to-grid technology. After reviewing more than 350 applications, last week they selected just under 40 companies in categories including batteries, components and vehicle-to-grid solution to advance to the next round of review. Google.org anticipates to announce investments in some of these interesting companies during the first quarter of 2008.

Two of the early-stage companies Google has begun to work with to drive down the costs of renewable energy are: 

• eSolar Inc., a Pasadena, CA-based company specializing in solar thermal power which replaces the fuel in a traditional power plant with heat produced from solar energy. eSolar's technology has great potential to produce utility-scale power cheaper than coal. A rendition of one of their 25 MW modules is shown at the begining of this post.
• Makani Power Inc., an Alameda, CA-based company developing high-altitude wind energy extraction technologies aimed at harnessing the most powerful wind resources. High-altitude wind energy has the potential to satisfy a significant portion of current global electricity needs.

This post was adapted from a press release by Google.

This is a commendable effort by Google, with no apparent financial gain on their part. This iniative should compliment the efforts of others to make renewable energy a more viable power source. Their goal of making renewable energy cheaper than coal is quite a headline maker, but in my mind a possible achievement. Good luck Google.

Their selection of eSolar, a thermal power company, is a rather conservative pick with one of the lowest costs of current technologies, while Makani, a high altitude wind energy technology company, indicates a willingness to invest in cutting edge technologies.

Comments

[Nucbuddy]

Jules,

How many hydrogen atoms are in a water molecule?

[Kit P]

Jules, I do not think Paul is too worried about the laws of thermodynamics changing in the next 50 years.

I am not too worried that I will be proven wrong about Google. How do you know when a technology for producing electricity is viable? When GE buys the innovative company at a fire sale.

[Jules]

Like I said, enjoy your ignorance. You guys should think about starting your own flatland club. With minds as narrow as yours, you'd be eminently qualified to join...

[petr]

you're just arguing with a paid-for-troll for the oil/gas/coal industry.
Germany expects to be 30% renewable by 2020
and are well on their way to exceeding their goals - and have created at least 250,000 jobs in the industry as well.

[Kit P]

That is really great petr. What is your plan? Wear me down with every unrealistic plan to develop renewable energy.

[Jimmi]

Man I haven't posted here in a while... sup guys.

pter... Germany is going on a bumpy ride. I'm affraid there may be a little truth to what Kit P just said about a unrealistic goal. Just one example...

I'm sure we're all aware that Germany is planning to utilize solar in their plans. One of the companies supplying solar panels is First Solar. You can go to their website to verify the 1.3MW facility that's going to be built and how the EU is also helping to fund the project... 45 mil Euro if i recall correctly... and how 400+ direct jobs are being created with this just this deal alone. What's not being said, atleast not in the green grapevine, is that the panels are made of CdTe. As most of you know I'm not a scientist just a lil ole investor doing research in green companies. Anyways, for those of you who don't know what CdTe is... that's cadmium telluride. Tellerium is extremely rare on Earth and there may be a supply issue to meet First Solar's demand.

http://seekingalpha.com/article/55845-reality-check-first-solar-and-tellurium?source=yahoo

http://seekingalpha.com/article/54614-first-solar-vulnerable-to-a-tellurium-shortage

Second cadmium is extremely toxic. Can't find the article but if I remember correctly it was stated that there was 400X the recommended /ppm standard set up by the EU. From my understanding First Solar will have to apply for an exemption for their solar panels... if an exemption is not given than you're looking at a step back for First Solar and Germany's plans.

I wish the best for Google's attempts and hope some fruit will bear from that tree. All avenues of research should be commended... especially if it isn't my tax dollars... kudos to Google for that.

[Paul Dietz]

Anyways, for those of you who don't know what CdTe is... that's cadmium telluride. Tellerium is extremely rare on Earth and there may be a supply issue to meet First Solar's demand. [...]

Well, in all fairness, CdTe is also extremely absorptive (much more so that crystalline silicon) of photons in the relevant range of wavelengths. CdTe films absorb 90% of 800 nm photons in just 1 micron, although cells typically have several microns of the material. So there isn't much Cd or Te involved (although there is also a CdS layer, but the absolute quantity of Cd is still not terribly large).

[petr]

how many people have died from the production of these solar panels and how does it compare with say the number of coal miners that have died from mining accidents? Not to mention asthma related diseases from coal pollution.

[Clee]

Nice links to detailed analyses on First Solar and tellurium supply. Interesting that they should have enough supply for 5 years or so and level off at 10 to 15 GWp/year, or 35GWp/year if they're really lucky. That should be enough supply for current projects in Germany and elsewhere. Fortunately First Solar is only one of the many companies that Germany is using, so Germany's success is not dependent on First Solar's or CdTe. There's still lots of silicon left in the world, as well as other forms of renewable energy.

But as DaveMart likes to point out, this Google RE>C project is not investing in PV, much less First Solar, so it's all rather moot. The project is not going to make me rush to buy some Google stock, but it's not going to make me stop using their search engine either.

[Jimmi]

Clee...

The tellurium supply issue is just one of the hurdles. Even if FSLR (First Solar) acquires and increases the 20%+ of all tellurium processed, the other problem is the cadmium. Will the EU permit a product that has more than 400X the recommended standard? When you said "35GWp/year if their really lucky" from my understanding and this is from memory... can't find the link atm... the FSLR panels has 45500 /ppm of cadmium. The limit from EU guidelines is only 150 /ppm. FSLR will need some luck regarding the exemption application. If the product is banned than that will put a wrinkle in the plans. Germany's geothermal and wind projects will have to pick up the slack. I'm fully aware that Germany is not soley dependant on PV. I just wanted to point out that Germany is on a bumpy ride to try to accomplish the goal of 30% by 2020 and just gave one example of why it will be a rough ride. I am also aware that Google isn't going PV... so I agree my point is moot in this topic. Once again I was just trying to point out the hard road Germany has trying to accomplish 30% by 2020.

petr

Don't get me wrong. I know the numbers regarding deaths attributed by coal production vs PV production. I wasn't trying to say PV is bad... I'm all for renewables. I actually own shares of FSLR (got in at $135/share)... but with the articles that I have read concerning Cd and Te... I have to formulate an exit strategy and wait for the exemption application.

Once again I applaud the efforts of Google. Any research dollar that doesn't come from my tax dollar is very much welcome. I also agree that since Google is in the private sector they may have an advantage over government programs with their red tape and oversite committees. Best of luck to you Google!!!

And I must add something about the Bill Gates Foundation comments. I live in Virginia and EVMS (Eastern Virginia Medical School) just recieved over $25 million for AIDS research from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. I find it refreshing that some of our financial elites are taking on projects that usually are left to governments and politicians. Shame on those of you who have something bad to say about charitible causes... especially ones that fight diseases.

[Nucbuddy]

Jimmi wrote: I find it refreshing that some of our financial elites are taking on projects that usually are left to governments and politicians.

Those are tax-write-offs. E.g. they are entirely government-funded.

[Kit P]

Every environmental conscious executive should have biggest party jet they can afford like a a Boeing 767-200.

“Mr. Page says he and Mr. Brin bought the plane themselves and will use it for personal travel.”

You go Google, show us environmental leadership.

[Stefan Mueller]

They don`t have to spend Millions in research. We have a wind energy system producing energy much cheaper than any other
system on the Planet. (no joke)!
Look at:
www.energy-age-wind.de
No sound emission, less high, 5 times more energy.

[John Finlayson]

Why the name "RE

To that second point, I just Googled "RE

As an example of the first point, you can simply type "<" here in this comment form, and it displays properly after posting, but you have to type "RE

Bleh.

For a glimpse of some of the havoc this causes elsewhere, try Googling "RE

Is this a conspiracy to silence the voice of people who can't think like a geek? ;-)

[John Finlayson]

Double-bleh. It's worse than I thought. As you can probably infer from the last post, the preview doesn't match the post. Although the preview displayed everything right, the final post completely stripped out everything that follows an ampersand in each paragraph (I don't dare type the symbol itself). I'll try again.

[jfinlayson]

Why the name "RE

To that second point, I just Googled "RE

As an example of the first point, you can simply type "<" here in this comment form, and it displays properly after posting, but you have to type "RE

Bleh.

For a glimpse of some of the havoc this causes elsewhere, try Googling "RE

Is this a conspiracy to silence the voice of people who can't think like a geek? ;-)

[John F.]

Nope. That didn't work, either.

I tried again, replacing the ampersands with another character, but the post was blocked as potential comment spam.. Thank you, Typepad.

[JohnF]

Okay. One more attempt. I'm altering the content in hopes that Typepad's comment spam filter won't flag it (isn't the CAPTCHA sufficient by itself to prevent comment spam?)

Why did Google choose a name with a special HTML character in it? Don't they realize what a mess that causes?

Try googling for "RE#C" (replace the # with a less-than symbol). Of the first 10 results, 4 don't contain the string, and the sponsor listings have nothing to do with the topic, either. Own goal for Google.

Typepad barfs on it, too, as I mentioned above. I've reported the bugs to sixapart.

Try googling "RE#lt;C" (replace the # with an ampersand). More than 1600 pages containing this mangled name.

[Bob Wallace]

Jimmi wrote: I find it refreshing that some of our financial elites are taking on projects that usually are left to governments and politicians.

Those are tax-write-offs. E.g. they are entirely government-funded.

--

It might be a good idea to learn something about the tax code prior to April 15th.

I know a guy whose business went under because he was operating using the same misconception.

He also confused write-offs with tax credits.

[amazingdrx]

I think it's doable. This way. Go google!

http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog/_archives/2007/12/20/3420694.html

[Antonio Pietrangeli]

This is very good news. Some renewable technologies are already mature like wind power or hydropower as I know well being a hydropower engineer (http://www.pietrangeli.it/hydropower.htm). These technologies have high efficiencies, meaning that they are capable of recovering the majority of the energy capacity of the wind or water. On the contrary the solar still has very low efficiencies and therefore lots of money should still be spent in order to increase the potential of these energy sources. Therefore if western companies strongly invest in these domains it will be extremely important for the development of the technology.

[Freya Wang]

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I am sincerely and frankly to introduce our company ,I hope it will be a little help to you .
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The company is combined with a group of personal who are speciality on research and spread of new energy.Our chairman has devote into new energy industry for several years. She always fall over herself for the environment protect and commonweal. She is the founder-member of the “solar energy industry network’, “china solar energy PV(photovoltaic)network” etc.

Thank you so much !

[Kit P]

It looks like Huayuan new energy project Ltd might have some interesting products but their web site does not have an English version.

Meanwhile, Google has stopped providing performance information for their roof top PV system. They have not stopped greenwashing however. They have now moved into promoting geothermal but again they have selected the most far out least likely to ever be practical technology.

[Total Solar Energy]

i think this is great. well done google. the amount of energy they use must be large so for them to try and become self-sufficient I think should be applauded

[Total Solar Energy]

i think this is great. well done google. the amount of energy they use must be large so for them to try and become self-sufficient I think should be applauded

[Total Solar Energy]

i think this is great. well done google. the amount of energy they use must be large so for them to try and become self-sufficient I think should be applauded

[Kit P]

Why should we applaud putting PV on roofs where they will not make very electricity?

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[drilling rigs]

google is into everything.

[AMW]

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[Richard]

I understand that people in power have to weigh between different socio-economic values. But they still have to figure out what is best for the people and for the environment. Logically, it follows, what is good for the environment is good for the people.

[kiramatali shah]

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[Dattatray]

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[Harvesting Clean Energy]

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[Cheapest Gas Electricity]

Great article and with the billions and billions google is currently making this is a splash in the ocean on their money reserves. Yet great to see that they are investing in all our futures.

[solarpanel12]

well I can see that though this blog post is quite old but i think in today's time if we look around then the aim of Google to make solar energy cheaper has been materialized. now the techniques of how to make solar panel have also been found out an people can get more advanced information on these links.

[Lynn Daven]

What can go wrong with investing in renewable energy? This is not just a promise of greener living and lesser pollution, but already a work in progress. We can all hope that this chain reaction of green empowering continues. The more companies opening up and contributing, the greater impact we can do. Maybe we can look at neighborhoods that initiated into getting powered by solar panels.

[commercial solar]

Ya actually if we start saving the renewable energy from the beginning only then we are never gonna face problems about it...:)

[Account Deleted]

The investment into alternative power generating technologies such as nuclear energy may need to be measured against the potential cost when things turn against you as unfortunately happened this year in Japan. The use of thermal coal (steam coal) that is mostly burnt for power generation may be valid for other countries who may not be able to allocate resources and funds to alternative and more greener sources of power. Coal newsletters and coal statistics show developing economies are more likely to increase their investment into & their use of thermal coal & metallurgical coal in coming years because of coal's affordability and ability to quickly meet increasing demands for electricity and steel. www.coalportal.com

[preciseenergy]

Ya the renewable energy is saved these days to its best so that it can used for various other purposes and people should actually take advantage of this.If we will keep taking the advantage of this,then really it is gonna make our environment so clean and safe.And this is actually cheaper than coal.

[Rug Cleaning Los Angeles]

I didn't know Google was doing this, I think it's great though. I wonder how it went and if it's still ongoing.

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[Air Purifier]

Wow, Google's working on this? Impressive.

[dentist west hollywood]

I love Google, they're always doing such great things, always a new project!