Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Google's Latest Venture, Coal-Free Power

Google, the corporation that loves to invest in the triple-bottom line, announced yesterday it will be pouring tens of millions of dollars into research and development for renewable energy sources in 2008. While renewable energy as an environmental measure is a popular bandwagon to jump on these days, co-founder Larry Page expects the company to see returns "on a reasonable time scale," either in the form of higher stock prices of the companies it invests in or in the sale of licensing solar and other technologies it develops.

As the Atlanta Journal Constitution reports, Google wants to find cheaper, more reliable energy to run its power hungry datacenters. Google typically avoids the question of just how much power its datacenters actually consume; some estimate it costs the company as much as $2 million a month. It's no wonder Google wants to invest in a cheaper source.

But Google isn't the only company that stands to gain; its goal is to develop technology that makes clean energy sources less expensive than coal, something beneficial for the entire nation, not to mention the world.

To learn more click here.

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