Google Will Finance Enhanced Geothermal
Expect Google.org to make investments in the next couple of months in enhanced geothermal energy, says Dan Reicher, the Internet giant's director of climate change and energy initiatives.
Google's philanthropic arm is in talks with universities on funding basic research into tapping into the vast stores of energy underground, Reicher said at a two-day energy summit sponsored by the National Academy of Sciences. He said it also expects to finance companies that are working toward advances in this form of renewable energy.
A description of enhanced geothermal, graphics that show how it works, and a map of its potential can be found with this story in U.S. News.
Google announced its "renewable energy cheaper than coal" initiative late last year, but this is the clearest signal yet that the company is poised to add enhanced geothermal to its investment portfolio.
So far, Google's program has made $10 million investments in two companies that seek to produce renewable energy cheaper than coal: eSolar, a concentrating solar thermal power firm, and Makani Power, which seeks to develop ultra-high-altitude wind power. Reicher said tapping into wind power at 3,000 or even 10,000 feet up is "admittedly very high risk" but fits in well with Google's game plan on renewable energy investments.
"We don't have the constraints of venture capital firms, with the usual three-to-six-year exit strategy and need for return," Reicher says. "We're looking for higher-risk, higher-payoff investments." He also said Google.org is likely to invest in commercialization of cellulosic ethanol—another example of a promising technology that has a hard time getting out of the so-called Valley of Death, development of risky, first-of-a-kind plants.
Reicher also addressed why Google is engaged in the issue of renewable energy. As a large user of electricity, Google has aimed to purchase green resources and has often found them not available or prohibitively expensive.
"There's a great deal of optimism about renewable energy, great engagement of the public, and interest of the investment community," Reicher says. "There needs to be a fundamental change in the cost structure of renewables if we expect them to compete. And let's talk about the competitive landscape—first and foremost about coal. The aim has to be to make renewable energy competitive with coal and to do it in years, not decades."
Tags: Google | energy | renewable energy
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Reader Comments
GM has beaten Google to the punch
I think it's pretty hilarious that GM has already invested in cellulosic ethanol, to a tune greater than Google did for plug-ins, and is investing over $1 billion to bring out the first practical plug-in, while Google puts up about 1 hour's net profit (a couple milllion)to "encourage plug-in technology" that is totally muddle-headed. Google apparently is completely ignorant of the fact that it's the batteries that are hard to produce to make a plug-in. Any (and all) of the major automakers (and even some like Fisker) can build a plug-in vehcile. That's the simple part - its finding practical batteries that will be long lasting and not too costly that's hard to do. In that regard, Google has done zip. It's other contributions to solar thermal are pathetically inadequate and are simply greenwashing efforts for their cheapskate corporation. California and Florida utility companies are supporting solar thermal with several companies and manufacturing plants are being built as we speak, with power stations to shortly follow. Solar thermal is all that's needed, plus nuclear or geothermal
and hydro. Solar PV's problems aren't limited to simply a matter of cost cost - it's a matter of the crappy, uncontrollable power that it generates that sucks. Like wind. Like most wave. Those are totally obsolete technologies that are sucking up valuable Federal subsidies to produce power generators that have no ability to meet peak demand needs and therefore are a waste of money. They cannot displace ANY fossil fuel power plants.
Enhanced Geothermal is a winner!
The US should be spending billions to develop EGS as quickly as possible. It is the only clean solution that can actually replace coal for generation of baseload power we can depend on. Since most of the action goes on underground, it has much less visual impact than wind and solar and it is solid and dependable. Because solar works mainly during about 5 hours midday, it takes 5 megawatts of solar capacity to generate the same number of kilowatt-hours per year as 1 megawatt of geothermal. It takes 3 MW of wind to do the same job because the ratings are for peak conditions. On a bad weather month both can fall to a fraction of their rated power. Geothermal is continual and dependable, often achieving 95% capacity factor. Geothermal plants are cheap in the long run because they require no fuel and produce no pollution. Heat inside the earth is continually replenished by atomic decay. We need a Manhattin Project approach to jump start geothermal development instead of wasting billions on unworkable programs like "clean coal" and hydrogen which can never work.
inventor of air car runs on cpmpressed aid 45oo.psi moves pistons up and down goggle air car and france air car and water gas water fuel car runs on water h2o turns to hh2
air car from france not electric cars and water fuel
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