2007-11-28 Google Goal: Power Cheaper Than Coal

2007-11-28 Reuters Eric Auchard \Google\oil addiction\sustainability\sustainable power http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN2754639820071128 Google Goal: Power Cheaper Than Coal &ldquo;Google Inc. said on Tuesday it plans to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to help drive down the cost of electricity made from renewable energy below the price of coal.&rdquo;  Google Inc said on Tuesday it plans to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to help drive down the cost of electricity made from renewable energy below the price of coal.

The project, dubbed Renewable Energy Cheaper Than Coal, is hiring dozens of engineers and targeting investment financing at advanced solar thermal power, wind power, enhanced geothermal systems and other new technologies, Google said.

The Web services and online advertising group will be a big customer for the project, running computers and networks on the electricity and selling back what's left to the power grid.

"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," Larry Page, Google's co-founder and president of products, said in a statement. ... Page believes no more than 1,000 researchers worldwide are focused on renewable energy cheaper than coal. "We would really like to get those people in one room and give them resources."   