Sep 28, 2009

Google pushing hard up a hill, against the wind

I thought the point was to build a energy independent future?
Solar is so 70's... and still has massive scale and storage issues, yet is getting a "hard push" still at google.

Apparently, google not only ignored my submitted plan to save our nation, but is also trying to reinvent the wheel.

From TriplePundit - Frustrated with the lack of progress cutting the cost of solar thermal energy, Google, a prominent supporter of the technology, is privately working on ways to lower cost.

Google's Green Energy Czar Bill Weihl says it is working on lowering the production cost of the mirrors that are a primary component of solar thermal power by at least a factor of two, "ideally a factor of three or four," according to Reuters.

Weihl says Google will not be working with any other companies on the technology — an odd decision, given that Google has already invested in two solar thermal companies that use mirrors to produce power.

...Through its philanthropic arm, Google.org, the Internet giant has invested in two solar thermal companies, eSolar, of Pasadena, and BrightSource of Oakland. Google's aggressive and unilateral move into solar thermal power provided a big boost solar thermal, financially but also, perhaps more importantly, from a pr standpoint.

Frustration in Mountain View... Google has not been able to invest as much as it hoped. In an interview, Weihl said a lack of "breakthrough ideas" and funding for ideas in their early stages has led the Internet giant to invest less than it expected — less than $50 million so far. From the Reuters piece:

"I would say it's reasonable to be a little bit discouraged there and from my point of view, it's not right to be seriously discouraged," he said. "There isn't enough investment going into the early stages of investment pipeline before the venture funds come into the play."

For all of Google's renewable energy investments: click here.

Please read from TriplePundit
Haase -
"Innovation is about doing things differently,
not reinventing the old, but bringing in the new...
google made it's name by doing things different.

This is not that... come on google show us the good stuff.