Google plans renewable energy push

Google plans renewable energy push

uk.reuters.com

Google Inc. said on Tuesday the Web services and online advertising group plans to spend hundreds of millions of dollars in coming years to promote a new push to encourage cheap renewable electricity.

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

(visit the link for the full news article)

Google is, in effect, taking advantage of its growing mountain of cash, global brand recognition and mushrooming market capitalization as a pulpit to campaign for alternative energy. The company's leaders argue that the time is ripe for investments in innovative research to cut energy costs.

"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.

at last! a private company is pushing to do what the world governments dare not. we don't wanna upset the oil guys now do we.

i dont think a company of this size can be bought out and persuaded to pursue things other than cheap energy.

hopefully if done correctly this could help solve a lot of problems.

someone get on the phone to nano solar tell them they have some intrested investors

uk.reuters.com
(visit the link for the full news article)



[edit on 27/11/07 by Quantum_Squirrel]

Oh thank you upstart monopoly Google!!!

Finally, someone who has a hope in hell of standing up to the Oil companies, actually standing up!


Well guys, you now have somewhere to send your designs. Google. Sell all patents to Google before the slick hairs can get their oily hands on them.

Why do you want a government to do what a private company can do just fine?

Originally posted by Johnmike
Why do you want a government to do what a private company can do just fine?

who said i wanted the government to do it? i just want ANYONE to do it .. we all know the tech exists.. its just making it cost effecient and that costs a heck of a lot in research.. something current governments are unwilling or unable to do.

Nano solar / government/ google who cares as long as it gets done

Good for the guys at Google!

I have long thought that people with BIG MONEY (Gates, Buffet, etc.) should be investing in new energy technologies. With all of the research going on it is only a matter of time until something really revolutionary comes along. This nano solar technology is a good example. If it turns out to be as good as they promise we would see amazing changes in only a few years.

Originally posted by itguysrule
Good for the guys at Google!

I have long thought that people with BIG MONEY (Gates, Buffet, etc.) should be investing in new energy technologies. With all of the research going on it is only a matter of time until something really revolutionary comes along. This nano solar technology is a good example. If it turns out to be as good as they promise we would see amazing changes in only a few years.

The only thing that scares me is .... hmmm lets conspiracy theorise here ....

Google is now a global company ... everyone knows the name .. heck i bet half of you had it as your home page (before the put the toolbar in).

When they do anything we say 'cool google are doing this etc' we are all comftable with the name , it brings reassurance to us all ....Google has its virtual fingers in many many pies ........and could control the populace on a global scale .. hmmmm ... N.W.O anyone?

forgive my flights of fancy

Originally posted by Quantum_Squirrel
Google is now a global company ... everyone knows the name .. heck i bet half of you had it as your home page (before the put the toolbar in).

When they do anything we say 'cool google are doing this etc' we are all comftable with the name , it brings reassurance to us all ....Google has its virtual fingers in many many pies ........and could control the populace on a global scale .. hmmmm ... N.W.O anyone?

forgive my flights of fancy

...They're going to control everything because they're developing a technology?

Power corrupts and absolute power, corrupts absolutely.

I was actually being sarcastic ie:flight of fancy.

But Google are a serious player, heck they even have designs on the moon now .... (see google lunarX prize)

once you control everything whats left? the people? the money? supplying the world with solar power? as i stated before i don't care who does it, its just about time someone did it on a grand scale.

I believe we are at the birth of a revolution in this field of technology, i just would be more comftable with a global governmental effort in this field rather than a massive corparation .. but then again anyone can be bought ANYONE.

Am I the only one who thinks that oil is a good thing? It employs hundreds of millions of people (including, hopefully, me in a few years time) and is the lifeblood of almost everything we do. Plastic, vehicle fuel, heating, etc.

The whole 'destroying the planet' thing is boring now, it's our planet and we can do whatever we please with it. If the companies are lent on by government, then we can have both oil/coal/natural gas and protect the environment.

All this 'renewable' energy is a pipe dream, sure, MEDC's could afford and maybe utilize it, but what about the poorer nations? Do we ignore them? Unless we scrap fossil fuels globally then it's not going to work.

reply to post by Zanzibar


LMAO...our country is already making 20% of the total energy consumed from alternative energy like wind, water, earth power, so no it is not a pibe dream.

Besides...do you think its healthy for you to take a breath of freshly burned fossil fuel?

I'd rather breath in fresh air thank you!

Originally posted by Quantum_Squirrel
Power corrupts and absolute power, corrupts absolutely.

I was actually being sarcastic ie:flight of fancy.

But Google are a serious player, heck they even have designs on the moon now .... (see google lunarX prize)

once you control everything whats left? the people? the money? supplying the world with solar power? as i stated before i don't care who does it, its just about time someone did it on a grand scale.

I believe we are at the birth of a revolution in this field of technology, i just would be more comftable with a global governmental effort in this field rather than a massive corparation .. but then again anyone can be bought ANYONE.

Won't give them that much power. They'll make money, that's all. Patents expire within 20 years anyway.

And you'd rather give that to government?

reply to post by Bluess


I never said it wasn't possible, on the contrary, I said it was and is, it's the attempt in getting more people to use it when there are far cheaper and easier methods out there.

I'd rather have hundreds of millions of people in jobs who might not be able to get any other work and an amazing job than a windmill.

When the oil runs out then I say yeah, windmills and solar panels, but it hasn't ran out so we may as well exploit it.

reply to post by Zanzibar


I actually though you where trying to be sarcastic when i replied before...but here it goes...

Fossil fuels = poluting, basically monopolised,
alternative energi = clean, more evenly distributed

and for all the people working in the fossil fuel busines...well since the change away from fossil fuel seems to beslower than the movement of a snail, they will have plenty of time to educate themselfes to manage a job in the alternative energy business

that was all i was trying to say

petrol will be over at a point. some people are sure we reached the "peak" already - so on the global scale we cannot increase the production.However the request for petrol is increasing.The sooner we try to replace petrol - the better.As the remaining (economically reliable) resources of petrol are more and more insecure - so I guess that Google is smart on pushing with alternative.
At the moment we do not have 100% alternative energy as the existing technologies will require petrol to be produced. Indeed we need important technological advances in order to be able to have truly alternative energy. Another solution would be that the military would help with their banned technologies that would give us a kik of 20 years for over-unity research and even possible the energy we need to become a type II civilisation ..

What about our children and their children? Yes it's our planet, but why waste it? Why trash it? It should be treasured and respected. It's our only place to live... what are our children going to do? We trash it so bad they don't have a future?

If you think 'oil is a good thing' you are probably in a minority on ATS boards at least ..

Its our planet we can do what we like?....NO the minority can do what they like and make billions whilst the majority's views are ignored and trampled upon.

And oil is running out why do u think russia was so eager to plant the flag under the see in the arctic or was it antarctic?

the biggest concentration of oil is why we are bombing places right now and deaths of thousands of innocent people can never ever be a good thing.

Originally posted by Zanzibar
reply to post by Bluess

 

I never said it wasn't possible, on the contrary, I said it was and is, it's the attempt in getting more people to use it when there are far cheaper and easier methods out there.

I'd rather have hundreds of millions of people in jobs who might not be able to get any other work and an amazing job than a windmill.

When the oil runs out then I say yeah, windmills and solar panels, but it hasn't ran out so we may as well exploit it.

Plastics and lubricants are never going to go away so that will save most of those 100 million jobs. What about the jobs windmills and solar panals will create?

And like stated above, business surrounding oil has been corrupted by the most evil of peoples. Look at the wars we fight over it. I say good riddance

Originally posted by Quantum_Squirrel
the biggest concentration of oil is why we are bombing places right now and deaths of thousands of innocent people can never ever be a good thing.

Like Saudi Arabia, Russia, Norway, Iran, Venezuela, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Nigeria, Mexico, Algeria, Qatar, Libya, and Indonesia?

Originally posted by Johnmike

Originally posted by Quantum_Squirrel
the biggest concentration of oil is why we are bombing places right now and deaths of thousands of innocent people can never ever be a good thing.

Like Saudi Arabia, Russia, Norway, Iran, Venezuela, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Nigeria, Mexico, Algeria, Qatar, Libya, and Indonesia?

i said the 'Biggest concentration' of oil not 'the only' concentration of oil .

Saudi is top then russia then the U.S.A then IRAN ( in production i am unsure of figures for amount of oil in the ground) so 2 of the top 4 are in the middle east.

[edit on 29/11/07 by Quantum_Squirrel]