Call them philanthropic or just call them smart investors, the bottom line is that Google wants to provide an alternate solution to the greenhouse gases of laden coal power generation in the US.

Google's Green Energy Czar Bill Weih Inspecting Solar Panels

Google's Green Energy Czar Bill Weih Inspecting Solar Panels

The Internet giant has openly claimed that the government isn’t taking risks enough to see fruitful achievements and that is where such plans falter. It is important to take investment risks to bring about a change.

Currently testing their own set ups, Google has primarily concentrated on solar thermal energy conversion, advanced geothermal with wind based setups functioning as second fiddle. Google uses the sun’s energy (reflected through mirrors) to form steam that powers a turbine to generate energy.

The company is aiming to find cheaper ways to produce more temperature to heat the substance and this involves the making of more heliostats, the fields of mirrors that have to track the sun, reflect the sun and keep it focused.

Google has so far invested $50 million and although it is a modest investment, the achievements have been heartening and so has the pace of those achievements. What remains to be seen is whether these research results could prove useful in substituting coal with a cheaper source of renewable energy. For therein lies the key to success. [via Reuters]

If you're new here and you like our articles, how about subscribing free for our updates via RSS feed.

Related posts:

  1. Google Invests Pocket Change in Geothermal Technology So, I wonder. How many points does Google want for throwing pocket change at an alternate fuel technology? The giant search engine machine pledged...

  2. Google Announces Free Software to Help Save EnergyAlthough they didn’t announce a new Favicon change, Google came out with a huge announcement. They’ve just creating a free software tool that allows all...

  3. New York plans to meet 45% of its power needs from renewable energy sources by 2015New York has worked out a plan to meet 45% of its electricity needs from renewable energy sources by 2015. The scheme also would create...