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Enough geothermal energy to power the globe -- now that's hot!
8/19/08
Today, as part of our
Renewable Energy Cheaper than Coal initiative
, Google.org
announced
more than $10 million in investments and grants in Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) technology. EGS expands the potential of traditional geothermal energy by orders of magnitude. The traditional geothermal approach relies on finding naturally occurring pockets of steam or hot water. The EGS process, by comparison, replicates these conditions by fracturing hot rock, circulating water through the system, and using the resulting steam to produce electricity in a conventional turbine.
EGS has the potential to provide clean renewable electricity 24/7, at a cost cheaper than coal. The ability to produce electricity from geothermal energy has been thought exclusive to locations such as California and Iceland. However EGS could allow us to harness the heat within the earth almost anywhere. To see see the massive size of the US geothermal resource accessible by EGS, check out our
Google Earth layer
. For more on EGS, watch this video, featuring
Dr. Steve Chu
, Director of the
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
, and Dr.
Jefferson Tester
, professor of Chemical Engineering at MIT and lead author of a major recent study on EGS:
Our EGS partners to date include:
AltaRock Energy
: $6.25 million investment to develop innovative technologies to achieve significant cost reductions and improved performance in EGS projects
Potter Drilling
: $4 million investment in two tranches, to develop new approaches to lower the cost and expand the range of deep hard rock drilling, a critical element to large-scale deployment of EGS
Southern Methodist University Geothermal Laboratory
: $489,521 grant to improve understanding of the size and distribution of geothermal energy resources and to update geothermal mapping of North America
Working with
Geodynamics
, one of the world's leading EGS development companies, we modeled Geodynamics' first 50 MW system at the Cooper Basin in SketchUp, Google's 3D modeling technology. To see how EGS works, check out the
animation
of the SketchUp model or
download it
.
EGS is heating up around the world. Australia, Germany, and the European Union are currently leading the technology and commercialization race. All 50 U.S. states, Europe, Russia, China, and India all have substantial thermal resources accessible by EGS.
While the US debates drilling in the ocean for oil, we are focused on drilling for renewable energy - and lots of it - right beneath our feet. A
recent report by MIT
on EGS estimated just 2% of the heat 3 - 10 km below below the continental United States is more than 2,500 times the country's total annual energy use. The United States needs more aggressive government policies to help catch up to other nations, including expanded R&D funding, a national renewable portfolio standard, and reliable tax incentives. For more on our geothermal policy agenda, read this
brief
.
EGS has enormous potential to cleanly address the world's energy challenges. We look forward to continuing our efforts to advance EGS through technology, investment, policy and information.
Posted by Charles Baron, Climate and Energy Team, Google.org
Capitol Hill spotlights energy efficiency
8/1/08
In the 1970s and 1980s, America's push for energy conservation meant "doing less with less" - lowering the thermostat, turning off lights, donning a sweater, and leaving the car in the garage. Following up
his testimony from earlier this month
, Dan Reicher, Google.org's Director of Climate Change and Energy Initiatives, visited Capitol Hill again this week to discuss a new 21st Century approach - harnessing technology to achieve greater energy efficiency and "do
more
with less."
The hearing
, which also featured Ian Bowles, Massachusetts' Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs, focused on ways in which consumers, businesses, and government can work together to achieve greater energy efficiency. Studies have shown that efficiency opportunities can cut global energy demand to less than half of what is projected by 2020.
Dan stressed the need for a new vision for how America generates, transmits, and uses electricity. He noted that the increasing interplay between energy hardware and information software, along with the rise of the Internet and the connectivity it brings, adds to the potential to make and use energy more productively. From smart meters and smart appliances to smart homes and a smart grid, we are poised to significantly advance our ability to monitor and manage energy.
Dan highlighted Google.org's
RechargeIT
initiative and discussed the efficiency advantages of plug-in vehicles. He emphasized how the government could help get more plug-ins on the road by providing financial incentives, investing in our national electricity infrastructure, funding R&D, and modernizing our regulatory system to permit real-time pricing of power.
Dan's other proposals include implementing an Energy Efficiency Resource Standard, which would set efficiency resource targets for electricity and gas suppliers. He also called for increased federal support for weatherizing energy inefficient homes in low-income communities, and for improved financial incentives to encourage private-sector investment in promising clean energy technologies.
Check out Dan's
testimony
and
video
from the hearing.
Posted by Johanna Shelton, Policy Counsel & Legislative Strategist
Driving plug-in technology with investments of $2.75 million
7/23/08
Last June Google.org launched
RechargeIT
, an initiative to accelerate the adoption of plug-in electric vehicles. At that time we announced a request for investment proposals (RFP) from teams working on technologies relevant to this goal. Today we are pleased to announce our first RechargeIT investments in two promising companies tackling the challenge of vehicle electrification.
Aptera Motors
of Carlsbad, California is building an ultra-high efficiency vehicle based on improved aerodynamics and composite materials. Aptera's first prototype achieved over 230 miles per gallon during testing, and they are developing an all-electric as well as a plug-in hybrid vehicle based on this design.
ActaCell
is an Austin-based company working to commercialize lithium-ion battery technology developed at the University of Texas at Austin. ActaCell's technology offers the promise of improved battery cycle life and lower costs, while maintaining a focus on battery safety, all of which are important factors in the widespread adoption of plug-in vehicles.
Both of these innovative companies and their capable teams are working to develop technology that is crucial to helping us realize the RechargeIT vision: millions of plug-in vehicles on the road.
Posted by Karl Sun, Google.org Investments Principal
Our plug-ins perform: 90+ MPG
7/22/08
Last summer Google.org launched the RechargeIT program, an initiative to accelerate the commercialization of plug-in vehicles. As part of this project, we created the GFleet, a free car-sharing program for Google employees. The GFleet includes a handful of hybrid vehicles converted to plug-ins with a
Hymotion
conversion module.
Our plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) have been on the road for about a year now, and the RechargeIT team has been diligently collecting statistics on their performance. We noticed that employees primarily use our plug-ins for short trips close to our headquarters, so the data weren't truly representative of typical U.S. driving patterns. We were curious to see how the cars would perform under controlled conditions - and how they would stack up against other conventional automobiles typically found in U.S. households. With that, the
RechargeIT Driving Experiment
was born!
In total, it took just over seven weeks to complete all the trips in all the vehicles. And with the results in, our plug-ins did great, with the Priuses getting more than 90 miles per gallon. The PHEVs not only greatly outperformed the average American fleet fuel economy of 19.8 MPG, they did significantly better than the standard hybrids – 53% fuel economy improvement for the plug-in Ford Escape and 93% improvement for the plug-in Prius.
Check out our newly improved
RechargeIT website
for more details on our Driving Experiment.
Posted by Rolf Schreiber, RechargeIT Engineer
Plug-ins converge on Washington
6/16/08
Posted by Michael Terrell, Program Manager, Google.org
Last week Google.org and the Brookings Institution hosted a two-day
conference
in Washington to showcase plug-in electric vehicles and examine how the government can support their widespread adoption. An impressive lineup of Members of Congress, auto and utility executives, and technology experts spoke to a packed house about the potential of plug-ins to reduce oil dependence, lower the cost of driving, and fight global warming. Between panels, participants were treated to a
display
of the latest plug-in cars, including one of Google.org's
RechargeIT cars
, an
electric sportscar
, and
Detroit's answer
to high gas prices.
There appeared to be overwhelming agreement that government
leadership
is necessary to make this industry transformation a reality. (A recent
poll
commissioned by Google.org shows that voters agree.) A second theme was the need to modernize and green the power grid as the country moves toward electrifying transportation. But with gas prices at record highs and enthusiasm for the promise of electric cars growing, the feeling in Washington last week was that plug-ins' time has come.
Plug-in conference highlights, day 2
6/13/08
Posted by David Bercovich, Project Manager, Google.org
Day two of the Google.org-Brookings Institution
conference
was punctuated by a
panel
moderated by
Tom Friedman
. The lively discussion covered topics including policy leadership, innovative business models, the potential for plug-ins to become ‘greener’ over time, and the security and stability of the grid. Two important themes emerged – the importance of plug-ins and clean energy for U. S. economic competitiveness and the policy and leadership needed to make this industry transformation a reality.
Jon Wellinghoff
, Commissioner of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), surprised many in the audience by describing the 40 million electric vehicles on the road today in China (many of which are scooters) and emphatically argued that the grid is ready for plug-ins today.
John Podesta
, President of the
Center for American Progress
, credited Germany’s
feed-in tariff
with creating a vibrant solar industry in Germany and causing the U. S. market share of the global solar industry to decline from 45% to 10%. Assistant Secretary of Energy
Andy Karsner
announced
a $30 million Department of Energy investment in plug-in vehicle technology.
Sue Tierney
talked about the fact that leadership on plug-ins is currently happening outside of Washington at the state level and within the business community. Finally,
Congressman Jay Inslee
inspired the crowd by suggesting that we need visionary leadership on plug-in vehicles and renewable energy, likening the climate crisis to the challenge put forth by
John F. Kennedy
when he launched the
Apollo program
to put a man on the moon in 10 years.
Participants plug in
6/11/08
Posted by
Jenny Kwan, Climate and Energy Intern, Google.org
Hundreds of participants gathered today in Washington, DC as the
Google.org - Brookings Institution
conference
kicked off. It was exciting to be able to see, in person, the latest electric car technology.
Outside the hotel we talked to Patrick from GM about their new
Chevy Volt
. If you look for it you can also spot the
A123
car in the background.
Inside the conference room, I got to check out the latest Tesla. Unfortunately it's a little out of my price range...
I also met a bunch of people from around the US and the world and asked what brought them to the conference. Felix Kramer with CalCars who was one of the first to bring electric vehicles to Washington DC many years ago:
And Seth from New York and Lars from Sweden were here to check out the crowd and learn about the latest news and technology:
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