Internet search giant Google 鈥� sometimes criticised for the amount of energy its servers use 鈥� now aims to do for the power grid what it did for the web.
Having conquered the market for web search by first simplifying how it is done and then linking advertising to users鈥� search terms, is now funding green technology and using its brand power to lobby for policy change.
Google launched a plan on Wednesday to wean the US off burning coal and oil for power by 2030, and cut oil use for cars by 40%. That will cost the nation trillions of dollars, but Google believes it should ultimately save money.
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Chief Executive Eric Schmidt says the annual cost of the energy plan would anyway be less than the $700 billion currently being considered to bail out the financial industry, and he sees some parallels between the energy challenge and the so-called credit crunch.
鈥楽ystem failure鈥�
鈥淭hat is an unconscionable failure of system design,鈥� he says. 鈥淚t is inconceivable to me that the sum of the financial industry would have created that as a possible outcome.鈥�
He says Google has not yet felt the economic impact of the crisis, but adds it is hard to say what will happen next.
鈥淭here is an equivalent scale problem in energy,鈥� he told reporters after a speech to San Francisco鈥檚 Commonwealth Club entitled Where Would Google Drill?. 鈥淚鈥檓 a computer scientist and computer scientists love scale problems. We like scale and replication and leverage in a technical way.鈥�
Through its philanthropic arm , the company is backing start-ups designing wind, solar and geothermal technologies, which it hopes will eventually be cheaper than coal. Google invested $45 million in such companies this year.
鈥淏ut that is a drop when we need a flood,鈥� Google .
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Calls for energy efficiency, once heard largely from environmentalists, now resonate with voters and businesses unlike never before 鈥� especially with oil above $100 a barrel.
There have even been suggestions that billionaire philanthropists could have a go at planetary engineering.
Google itself is improving its servers and their buildings, identifying $5 million in building efficiency investments that will pay for themselves in two and a half years. New efficiency standards for computers could US cut power consumption by the equivalent of 10 to 20 coal-fired plants by 2010, the company says.
Google鈥檚 energy plan calls for: stricter building codes, a commitment to wind and solar tax credits that have lapsed in the past, and a price on carbon through cap-and-trade or taxes.
Google recently partnered with General Electric Co to speed up development of grid technology. Echoing calls by both presidential candidates for an upgraded power grid, Google wants to see more smart meters and real-time pricing to let people see how much energy they use and what it costs them (see our blog Should we all become meter maids?).
Schmidt, a business adviser to Barack Obama鈥檚 campaign, was discouraged by talk of 鈥渃lean coal鈥� among Republicans, but said generally of energy policy: 鈥淩egardless of who becomes president, there will be action on this front.鈥�
Energy and Fuels 鈥� Learn more about the looming energy crisis in our comprehensive special report.
