Google looks to develop greener energy sources
INDIAN WELLS, California (Reuters) - Google Inc (GOOG.O) is prepared to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in finding cheaper, cleaner alternative energy sources, an executive with the Internet search giant said on Wednesday.
Dan Reicher, director of climate and energy initiatives for the company's philanthropic arm, Google.org, said he had already committed $20 million to funding start-up firms that research and develop solar-thermal and wind power. He was also looking at investing in a firm that creates energy through geothermal systems.
"We arrived at these three technologies because we think they have real promise number one to move down the cost curve and to be competitive with coal and number two to get to very large scale," Reicher told Reuters at the Clean-tech Investor Summit.
Google said in November it planned to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to help drive the cost of electricity made from renewable sources below the price of power generated from dirty coal-fired plants.
The company has pledged $10 million to Pasadena, California-based eSolar Inc to support research and development on solar thermal power, which concentrates heat from the sun to create steam and spin turbines. It has invested $10 million in Alameda, California-based Makani Power Inc, which is developing high-altitude wind technologies.
Enhanced geothermal systems, or EGS, create power by pumping water into hot rocks in the ground rather than harvesting hot water already there.
"This is a very interesting area because it is a large resource broadly distributed," Reicher said. "If you drill deep enough you can find heat virtually anywhere."
Reicher said Google.org was looking "very carefully at a couple of investment opportunities in companies" with EGS technology.
The U.S. Department of Energy has said that more than 100,000 megawatts of EGS capacity may be available in the continental United States, a 40-fold increase over present geothermal power generating capacity.
A fourth area in which Google.org is focused is energy transmission and storage, Reicher said.
The company is looking mainly at U.S. investments but is open to deals in other parts of the world, Reicher added.
(Reporting by Nichola Groom, editing by Leslie Gevirtz)
