Google has now spent more than $20MM in seed and startup endeavors relating to renewable energy. It is rumored that they will invest $100MM in the coming years toward the goal of creating a renewable energy source which can power a city the size of San Fransisco, or about 1 gigawatt. This is what Larry Page had to say about the 1GW milestone:
"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."
Google currently is working with two companies which appear to have scalable technologies.
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. For more information, you can visit here.
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. Check this out more information on Makani Power.
For more information on Google's commitment to a clean energy future, see http://www.google.com/renewable-energy
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