Google bets on research in renewable energy

Google has decided to broaden their horizons and strongly climb the energy revolution. The Internet giant two years ago made a utopian equation (RE-C) and recruited minds from around the world to advance at full speed toward the goal: Renewable cheaper than coal.

"There is a great opportunity to reach that turning point in five years," anticipates WORLDWIDE Bill Weihl, Google's green brain. "It may take slightly longer, but we are determined to go for innovative ideas in the whole range of renewables."

Through its philanthropic arm, Google.org, the company last year spent $ 45 million for research into solar thermal, wind power and enhanced geothermal systems (EGS). It has also invested in 'startups' as ESOL or brightsolid, and in recent months have launched the field of energy efficiency with the Meters, software that allows control from a laptop (and in the future from a mobile phone) energy consumption in homes in real time.

Google began the conversion from within. The arrival of Bill Weihl Mountain Valley, a former professor at MIT, led to the redesign of the data center (with a saving of 50% of energy) and the installation of one of the largest U.S. solar roof , with photovoltaic panels capable of generating 1.6 megawatts.

Himself Larry Page, Google co-founder, entered the dynamics, and announced his intention to "apply the same creativity and imagination to the challenge of generating renewable energy on a large scale." The challenge, he said, is to produce one gigawatt of clean energy (enough to power San Francisco) at a price cheaper than coal.

Weihl function, elevated to the status of green energy czar of Google, is now to accelerate the search, with an eye to thermal energy. It aims to reduce by 50% or even 75% the cost of heliostats (or mirrors) used to bring to boiling water and steam to generate electricity. Google is experimenting with innovative materials and trying to maximize the efficiency of other system components to cross the border of five cents per kilowatt hour.

"This is a pilot program and still no results," says Weihl, who does not hide his desire to see the Government investing 20,000 to 30,000 million dollars in high-risk ideas in renewable energy. "Obama has made a start 15 days ago, when allocated $ 137 million to 37 universities and companies working in R & D, but we need more money if we tackle climate change."

While we solve, Google has put all the energy in the project Meters, which starts later this year in USA, Germany, India and Canada. It is software that, using homemade devices or smart grids of electrical energy consumption may inform the house the minute. "The electricity bill has always been a dark spot for consumers," says the father of the idea, Ed Lu, a former NASA astronaut and chief engineer at Google. "With the Meters are able to see the prices and energy to correct bad habits.

Lu opened his laptop and makes remote check of the last 24 hours of consumption at home in Silicon Valley. "The information will be one of the keys to the next energy revolution," he predicts. "Imagine the multiplier effect of millions of households saving 15% of energy every month.
Leading by example

The Google headquarters in Mountain View (California) is the closest thing to a college campus, designed with the highest standards of energy efficiency, waste management and water use, places of entertainment and leisure for workers, picnic areas and even a garden of herbs from around the globe.

On the roof of the main building is installed one of the largest areas of photovoltaic panels in the U.S. trade floor, with capacity to generate 1.6 megawatts, enough to supply about 1,000 homes. Solar panels contribute 30% of energy in the building. In addition, employees are free at their disposal a fleet of eight hybrid cars that are recharged in the garage 'solar'.

The company encourages the use of the bicycle, with donations of five dollars a day to workers moving to the office on two wheels (the money goes to an NGO of your choice). The farm worker also have a free fleet of more than a hundred bikes on campus.

For those who prefer wheeled transport is a free bus fleet with biodiesel, used by more than 1,500 workers.

The data center has also been redesigned with the highest standards of efficiency and saving 50% energy. More than 200 workers participated in an internal experiment in energy saving using the Meters. The per capita savings ranged from 10% to 15%. The company encourages the efficient use of computers. According to his calculations, each search on Google released the equivalent of 0.2 grams of CO2.