Google Wants to Make Renewable Energy Cheaper Than Coal
Dec 19th, 2007 by Shaun Carter
In Google’s attempt to diversify its business outside of search they recently announced an ambitious effort to develop cheap renewable energy in part to offset their own massive electricity needs to power one of the world’s largest computer systems.
Google wants to build a 1.6 Megawatt solar panel array to help power its Mountain View California headquarters. This is a great endeavor because it will not emphasize ethanol, which is causing inflationary pressure on crop prices as I wrote about in a related post. Solar energy is clean and doesn’t adversely effect any essential commodities or other industries.
Google is really stepping up and taking the brunt of the financial burden of developing cheap renewable energy, something other companies are unwilling to do. This is most likely because these other companies, many are startups, lack the immense financial resources and ongoing positive cashflow that Google is able to generate from its insanely high margin search business.
“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.
Now if only the government would repeal those subsidies it pays to big oil and send it the way of companies like Google that are trying to make a difference in the economics of clean power generation. The day that clean, renewable energy is cheaper to produce than coal and oil power is the day we can begin to reduce fossil fuel emission and lower dependence on foreign oil supplies which will only continue to diminish in supply and increase in cost.
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