Google invests in alternative power
Google is expanding into alternative energy in its most ambitious effort yet to ease the environmental strain caused by the company’s power requirements to run its massive computing centers. As part of a project announced in November 2007, the Internet search leader and its philanthropic arm will fund a quest to lower the cost of producing electricity from renewable energy sources such as wind and the sun.
How much electricity Google requires to power the hundreds of thousands of computers that run its search engine and other online services is not beeing disclosed. But there’s little doubt Google’s power demands will escalate as the company introduces more free products and services that will require even greater computing capacity.
“As Google grows, we don’t want the business to become part of the problem. We want to be part of the solution,” said Larry Brilliant, executive director of Google’s philanthropic arm, Google.org.
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. The company initially hopes to harvest cleaner-burning electricity to meet its own needs and sell power to other users or license the technology that emerges from its initiative, dubbed “Renewable Energy Cheaper Than Coal.”
“If we achieve these goals, we are going to be in the (electricity) business in a very big way,” Page said. “We should be able to make a lot of money from this.”
Google is joining a list of other prominent companies striving to become more environmentally friendly amid mounting concern that pollution from coal, oil and other power generation is causing climate change.
Wal-Mart Stores has also made a major commitment to renewable energy together with Cisco Systems Inc., Microsoft Corp., IBM Corp. and Intel Corp who have all stated aims to become more energy efficient.
A large and successful Internet company diversifying into the alternative-energy business isn’t as incongruous as it might seem. Google Chairman Eric Schmidt has often cited the company’s ever-expanding power needs as one of his biggest worries, and Page and co-founder Sergey Brin have long been interested in electric cars and other inventions related to alternative energy. Google’s headquarters already draws some of its power from one of the country’s biggest solar power installations.
Al Gore, who won a Nobel Prize for his efforts to educate people about the perils of global warming, has been a Google adviser for several years. Page said the former vice president influenced Google’s decision to accelerate its investment in renewable energy.
Google aims to produce one gigawatt of power from renewable energy at prices below the rates of electricity generated at coal-burning plants. One gigawatt power would be enough to supply the needs of a city the size of San Francisco, and it is predicted the goal could be reached in a matter of “years, not decades.”
Google intends to spend at least $20 million (euro13.45 million) next year to finance renewable energy research and hire more experts in the field. At least 20 to 30 new employees will participate in the project next year, Page said, though he hopes the number will be larger than that.
Google.org will invest “hundreds of millions” in companies specializing in renewable energy, Page said. The philanthropic arm, which sits under the umbrella of the Google Foundation, will draw upon its holdings of nearly $2 billion (euro1.34 billion) worth Google’s stock.
Google.org already is working with two outside companies: Pasadena-based eSolar Inc., which specializes in solar thermal power and Alameda-based Makani Power Inc., which specializes in wind power
Tags: alternative energy
