Google said yesterday it will spend "tens of millions of dollars" looking for renewable energy.
It calls its latest initiative RE<C, the aim being to deliver renewable energy at a price lower than that for coal.
The company is already backing two efforts, a solar thermal power outfit called eSolar (exploiting heat rather than just turning light into electricity) and a high altitude wind energy outfit called Makani Power.
Google has a strong incentive to do this. Its computer systems use an awful lot of electricity. If it can create cheaper supplies, it gains a cost advantage over any scaled competitor.
On the other hand this is the kind of thing you do when you’ve got "money coming out the wazoo," as the old E*Trade ad from 2000 put it.
You don’t go into a new business, one you know nothing about, unless you’ve got money coming out the wazoo. Google is still in this position.
Still, it would be nice to think they can do some good here. Right now renewable energy engineers and inventors are in much the same place open source gurus were a few years ago. If Google isn’t just bidding up the price of these folks, if they really are going to try some new and different things (knowing most will be dry holes) then you should applaud them.
At least they’re fighting the War Against Oil. What are you doing?
