Nov

28

Google expands into alternative energy

[From: telecomasia.net]

(Associated Press via NewsEdge) Google is expanding into alternative energy in its most ambitious effort yet to ease the environmental strain caused by the company’s voracious appetite for power to run its massive computing centers.

As part of a project, the internet search leader and its philanthropic arm will pour hundreds of millions of dollars into a quest to lower the cost of producing electricity from renewable energy sources such as wind and the sun.

If Google realizes its goal, the cost of solar power should fall by 25% to 50%, co-founder Larry Page said in an interview.

The Mountain View-based 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 joins a long list of other prominent companies striving to become more environmentally friendly amid mounting concern that pollution from coal, oil and other so-called “dirty” power generation is causing potentially catastrophic climate change.

Google’s initiative will likely stand out because of its financial muscle and its renowned brand, said Nicholas Parker, chairman of the Cleantech Network, a group that tracks investments in alternative energy.

“This is like a shot across the bow,” Parker said. “It shows there are people willing to put their oars in the water to get the job done.”

© 2007 The Associated Press

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