Nov 27, 2007 (From the CalCars-News archive)
"Google.com and Google.org have just announced one of the most promising new initiatives to address the global climate crisis. I hope the grandchildren of today's adults will someday look back and say this was a turning point in commercializing the cleaner/cheaper energy solutions that saved our world." -- Felix Kramer, Founder, CalCars.org
Google.com founded the Google Foundation in 2005, and then established Google.org, with 1% of the company's original equity and 1% of profits. Google.org, which can both invest and donate, is focusing initially on:
# Climate change
# Public health
# Global development
As CalCars-News readers know, Google.org's first project in Climate change is RechargeIT, launched in June 2006 to promote PHEVs and V2G technologies. The program included a PHEV fleet, grants to several organizations including CalCars and a $10M investment program: of 350 companies responding to the Request for Proposals, 40 are now in the second round. At the same time, the company launched initiatives for efficiency in computing operations, solar power and other measures to "green" its facilities.
Now both Google.com and Google.org take the next step -- and it's potentially of far greater significance. If we take as a given that we will increasingly electrify not only vehicles but everything that directly uses fossil fuels, at the same time as we improve efficiency throughout the global economy, the arrow points to cleaning the grid as the necessary corollary.
The next step is called "RE<C," meaning "Renewable Energy Cheaper Than Coal." This is the ultimate challenge. NYTimes columnist Tom Friedman and others have said that renewable energy won't succeed until it meets the "China price" -- that is, until it's cost-competitive with coal in China (and also in India and globally). Once this happens, it's no longer a question of moral appeals to "do the right thing," but instead to do what pays.
Getting to the point where renewable energy can win in the marketplace involves both business and political strategies. We know there's no level playing field in the marketplace. Over a century, the priorities, resources, incentives, loan guarantees, infrastructure support and straight-out subsidies have gone overwhelmingly to "big carbon" -- oil, natural gas and coal (along with massive support and insurance programs to fund nuclear power). The process of changing those priorities (and the research, development and demonstration programs of the Department of Energy (DOE) that follow them), continues in fits and starts.
Now we're seeing a second wave in which new technologies finally have the potential to challenge fossil fuels. That's what this RE<C is about. We can count on Google.org and Google.com being smart about how each of them fits together in this new program.
Of course, Google isn't the only player in this area: corporate and venture capital investment in CleanTech is expanding at a breakneck pace. Just as we think there's nothing better for plug-in cars than helping to encourage the start of the Great Automotive Race of the 21st Century, we're hoping that Google's new program will not only succeed on its own but will catalyze new waves of innovation globally.
Below we reprint on one convenient page four Google pages:
1. RE<C HOMEPAGE
Powering a clean energy revolution
At Google, we’re committed to helping build a clean energy future.
Clean and affordable energy is a growing need for our company, so we’re excited about launching RE<C, a strategic initiative whose mission is to develop electricity from renewable sources cheaper than electricity produced from coal. Initially, this project to create renewable energy cheaper than coal will focus on advanced solar thermal power, wind power technologies, and enhanced geothermal systems but we’ll explore other potential breakthrough technologies too.
We’re busy assembling our own internal research and development group and hiring a team of engineers and energy experts tasked with building 1 gigawatt of renewable energy capacity that is cheaper than coal. (That’s enough electricity to power a city the size of San Francisco.) Google’s R&D effort will begin with a significant effort on solar thermal technology, and will also investigate enhanced geothermal systems and other areas.
Supporting Breakthrough Technologies
In conjunction with the RE<C major research and development initiative, Google.org will make strategic grants and investments in organizations working to produce renewable energy at a cost below that of coal-fired power plants.
Google.org is already working with two innovative corporations who are building potentially breakthrough technologies, and we look forward to collaborating with other members of the renewable energy field, including companies, R&D laboratories, and universities.
Google's Green Commitment
This current initiative is just the next step in Google’s continuing commitment to a clean and green energy future. We have been working hard on energy efficiency and making our business environmentally sustainable.
Last spring we announced that we would be carbon neutral for 2007 and beyond, and we’re on track to meet this goal. We’ve taken concrete steps to reduce our carbon footprint and accelerate improvements in green technology. For example, through design improvements and the adoption of power-saving technologies, such as evaporative cooling, we have made great strides to bolster the efficiency of our data centers the facilities that store the computers that enable Google to deliver accurate search results at lightning speed. We’ve also reduced the carbon footprint of our building and office operations - for example, by replacing incandescent bulbs with higher-efficiency lighting, and maximizing the use of natural light. And earlier this year we flipped the switch at our Mountain View headquarters on one of the largest corporate solar panel installations in the United States.
In addition to “greening” our own business, we’re also cooperating with members of the tech community to improve efficiency on a broader scale. In 2007, we teamed with Intel and other industry partners to form the Climate Savers Computing Initiative, a group which advocates the design and adoption of less wasteful computing infrastructure. (In November 2007, CSCI achieved a new milestone when we signed on our very first public sector partners, the state governments of Minnesota and Kansas.) Got questions? We’ve got answers.
For more details on Google’s continuing commitment to a clean energy future, please see our FAQs page.
And for broadcast-standard video and other multimedia files related to our announcement of RE<C, please visit http://www.google.com/intl/en/press/index.html.
Why is Google so interested in renewable energy? In 2006, non-hydro renewable energy sources supplied less than 2% of the world’s energy consumption, in part because of the relatively high cost of production. Renewable energy isn’t as cost-competitive or widely available as fossil fuels, so Google (and most of the rest of the world) must rely on carbon-based power sources of electricity.
A number of organizations are working to bring down the price of renewable energy to be cost-competitive with coal. Google wants to apply our capital and engineering skills to join this important endeavor.
Why the goal of 1 gigawatt of energy? Is that how much power Google needs? This initiative is not just about creating clean, affordable electricity for Google - though we are keenly interested in making our business as environmentally sustainable as possible. If successful, this effort would likely provide a path to replacing a substantial portion of the world’s electricity needs with renewable energy sources. We want to do our part, but that won’t be enough alone to thwart climate change; we need a worldwide green electricity revolution to do that.
Why is Google focusing its R&D on solar thermal technology? Solar thermal systems convert heat from the sun into steam that powers electric generators. And solar thermal plants are efficient they naturally generate the most power during the peak electricity demand periods of the summer months. Google believes that solar thermal technology has strong potential to produce utility-scale power at low cost.
What has prompted your collaboration with eSolar? eSolar is working to develop solar thermal technology based on super-efficient design and a large enough scale to compete in the market with carbon-based electricity like coal. We believe that eSolar's approach has great potential to produce utility-scale power cheaper than coal. Read more about eSolar’s technology at http://www.esolar.com/.
What is high-altitude wind power all about? There is enough available wind energy to power the world's current energy needs. If we can tap into this vast energy source - particularly powerful high-altitude winds - we can power the globe.
What made you decide to invest in Makani Power? Makani Power is led by an incredible team which includes MacArthur award winner Saul Griffith, PhD and Don Montague, the “father of kite surfing.” We are pleased with the progress they have made and look forward to ongoing collaboration. Read more about Makani Power at http://www.makanipower.com/.
What is “enhanced” geothermal technology? The heat stored deep beneath the surface of the earth is potentially a vast resource of widely available renewable energy. Tapping the earth's heat through the use of "Enhanced Geothermal Systems" (EGS) is historically under-funded and only a handful of projects exist. Google plans to accelerate the development and adoption of this promising technology.
The earth's enormous resource of geologically stored heat is available anywhere. EGS uses advanced heat mining technology to extract energy from the earth's crust beyond the limitations of conventional geothermal systems. Since conventional geothermal systems require the pre-existing combination of high heat, steam or water, and permeable rock -- a combination limited in nature -- the potential for conventional geothermal energy to be a major portion of our energy mix is somewhat limited. EGS, however, overcomes the limitations of conventional geothermal systems by replicating the required conditions through geo-engineering. EGS would therefore unlock the much greater geothermal potential of heat stored in deep hot dry rocks.
Why geothermal? EGS has the potential to provide baseload power cheaper than coal, could conceivably be deployed almost anywhere, and is essentially limitless in supply. Most importantly, EGS has a relatively small footprint and virtually no greenhouse gas emissions. EGS development has been limited mostly by the lack of research interest and commercialization funding - not technology. According to a recent report from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) while further advances are needed, none of the known technical and economic barriers limiting widespread development of EGS are considered to be insurmountable. For more information, please see http://geothermal.inel.gov/publications/future_of_geothermal_energy.pdf.
Google's Goal: Renewable Energy Cheaper than Coal http://www.google.com/intl/en/press/pressrel/20071127_green.html
Creates renewable energy R&D group and supports breakthrough technologies
Mountain View, Calif. (November 27, 2007) 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. RE<C is hiring engineers and energy experts to lead its research and development work, which will begin with a significant effort on solar thermal technology, and will also investigate enhanced geothermal systems and other areas. 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.
"We have gained expertise in designing and building large-scale, energy-intensive facilities by building efficient data centers," said Larry Page, Google Co-founder and President of Products. "We want to apply the same creativity and innovation to the challenge of generating renewable electricity at globally significant scale, and produce it cheaper than from coal."
Page added, "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."
Page continued, "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." (One gigawatt can power a city the size of San Francisco.)
"If we meet this goal," said Page, "and large-scale renewable deployments are cheaper than coal, the world will have the option to meet a substantial portion of electricity needs from renewable sources and significantly reduce carbon emissions. We expect this would be a good business for us as well."
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 our greatest environmental challenges. Making electricity produced from renewable energy cheaper than coal would be a key part of reducing global greenhouse-gas emissions.
"Cheap renewable energy is not only critical for the environment but also vital for economic development in many places where there is limited affordable energy of any kind," added Sergey Brin, Google Co-founder and President of Technology.
Strategic Investments and Grants
"Lots of groups are doing great work trying to produce inexpensive renewable energy. We want to add something that moves these efforts toward even cheaper technologies a bit more quickly. Usual investment criteria may not deliver the super low-cost, clean, renewable energy soon enough to avoid the worst effects of climate change," said Dr. Larry Brilliant, Executive Director of Google.org, Google's philanthropic arm, "Google.org's hope is that by funding research on promising technologies, investing in promising new companies, and doing a lot of R&D ourselves, we may help spark a green electricity revolution that will deliver breakthrough technologies priced lower than coal."
Working with RE<C, Google.org will make strategic investments and grants that demonstrate a path toward producing energy at an unsubsidized cost below that of coal-fired power plants. Google will work with a variety of organizations in the renewable energy field, including companies, R&D laboratories, and universities. For example, Google.org is working with two companies that have promising scalable energy 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, please visit http://www.google.com/corporate/green/energy/esolar.pdf.
- 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. For more information on Makani Power, please visit http://www.google.com/corporate/green/energy/makani.pdf.
Today's announcement represents just the latest steps in Google's commitment to a clean and green energy future.
Google has been working hard on energy efficiency and making its business environmentally sustainable. Last spring the company announced its intention to be carbon neutral for 2007, and is on track to meet that goal. To this end, the company has taken concrete steps to reduce its carbon footprint and accelerate improvements in green technology, including:
- Developing cutting-edge energy efficiency technology to power and cool its data centers in the U.S. and around the world.
- Generating electricity for its Mountain View campus from a 1.6 Megawatt corporate solar panel installation, one of the largest in the U.S.
- Accelerating development and adoption of plug-in vehicles through the RechargeIT initiative, including a $10 million request for investment proposals (http://www.google.org/recharge/)
- Joining with other industry leaders in 2007 to form the Climate Savers Computing Initiative, a consortium that advocates the design and use of more energy-efficient computers and servers (http://www.climatesaverscomputing.org/).
- Working on policies that encourage renewable energy development and deployment, such as a U.S. Renewable Energy Standard, through Google.org.
For more information on Google's commitment to a clean energy future, see http://www.google.com/renewable-energy
For broadcast-standard video and other multimedia files for the announcement, see http://www.google.com/intl/en/press/index.html
For more information on recruitment for RE<C, see http://www.google.com/jobs/energy/
Webcast and Conference Call Information
Google's renewable energy initiative call begins today at 9:00 AM (PT) / 12:00 PM (ET). A replay of the call will be available beginning at 11:30 PM (ET) today through midnight Tuesday, December 4th, 2007 by calling 888-203-1112 in the United States or 719-457-0820 for calls from outside the United States. The required confirmation code for the replay is 2205214
RE<C JOBS http://www.google.com/jobs/energy/
Google is committed to helping build a clean energy future, and we need your help.
Business as usual will not deliver low-cost, clean energy fast enough to avoid potentially catastrophic climate change. We need a clean energy revolution that will deliver breakthrough technologies priced lower than carbon-intensive alternatives such as coal. Google is launching an effort to develop electricity from renewable energy sources that costs less than coal. We will take a build and buy approach -- we are developing an internal R&D effort and will be working with and making investments in companies with potential for scalable breakthrough technologies.
Our newly created initiative to create renewable energy cheaper than coal, known as RE<C, will explore R&D and investments in advanced solar thermal power, wind power technologies, and enhanced geothermal systems, and will consider other breakthrough technologies. RE<C is hiring engineers and energy experts to lead its research and development work, which will begin with a significant effort on solar thermal technology. We are looking for a world-class team to lead this effort. We need creative and motivated entrepreneurs and technologists with expertise in a broad range of areas.
To find out more details and apply online, please visit these sites for more details about specific positions:
- Renewable Energy Engineer
- Head of Renewable Energy Engineering
- Director, Green Business Strategy & Operations
- Director of Other
Other Positions: If you have relevant expertise in other areas beyond these specific positions, please send an email with your resume to energy@.... Areas of interest include, but are not limited to:
• regulatory issues
• land acquisition and management
• energy project development
• mechanical and electrical engineering
• thermodynamics and control systems
• physics and chemistry
• materials science
Smart generalists who think they fit should also apply by sending their resume to energy@....