Green Blog
A better web. Better for the environment.
Building a future that's clean and green
9/22/08
The Internet has had an enormous impact on people's lives around the world in the ten years since Google's founding. It has changed politics, entertainment, culture, business, health care, the environment and just about every other topic you can think of. Which got us to thinking, what's going to happen in the next ten years? How will this phenomenal technology evolve, how will we adapt, and (more importantly) how will it adapt to us? We asked ten of our top experts this very question, and during September (our 10th anniversary month) we are presenting
their responses
. As computer scientist Alan Kay has famously observed, the best way to predict the future is to invent it, so we will be doing our best to make good on our experts' words every day. - Karen Wickre and Alan Eagle, series editors
At Grist.org they have a saying about climate change: "A frog in water doesn't feel it boil in time. Dude, we are that frog."
It isn't very Googley to stand on the sidelines – whether the challenge involves search, apps, or clean energy. So we're working to be part of the solution. Specifically, we have embraced the challenge of developing a gigawatt of renewable electricity that is cheaper than electricity from coal – in years, not decades.(We call it RE<C. Not only is it a cool, nerdy name for the project, it breaks HTML pages everywhere.)
In ten years, we envision a cleaner, greener world -- running on wind, solar, and steam - with clean cars plugged into a clean grid. But for that vision to become real, the technologies to power it will have to be economically competitive -- otherwise they won't scale. So we are focusing much of our effort on technology innovation to drive down the costs of key renewable technologies. We are fundamentally optimists -- we believe that when innovative people focus on the right problems, they can find solutions. And when renewable energy is cheaper than fossil-based alternatives, and when plug-in hybrids are as cheap as traditional cars, they will take off in the marketplace.
Our company founders, Larry and Sergey, are engineers and when they encouraged our team to tackle this issue we knew they would prefer a technological approach. This summer, we welcomed at our Mountain View headquarters the first Google engineers dedicated exclusively to exploring the development of utility-scale clean energy at a price cheaper than coal.
But we need a thousand groups of engineers focused on developing renewable energy - not just the team we're building at Google. That means we need government to set the right incentives and regulatory environment to foster clean energy innovation and R&D. Our team is also working to advance a policy agenda that stimulates clean energy projects.
We're getting the word out about tax credits, government research funding, renewable portfolio standards, and the limitations of our current transmission grid. Our philanthropic arm is doing its part too. The climate team at Google.org is working to complement the work of our engineering team with grants and investments in clean energy projects. To date, we've invested over $45 million in breakthrough technologies like solar thermal, advanced wind, and enhanced geothermal systems.
It will take the concerted efforts of many -- but dude, we don't need to be that frog.
Posted by Bill Weihl, Green Energy Czar
Variability or Change?
9/19/08
For years, first scientists, then the media and politicians debated whether the observed global warming trend is due to natural variability or human-induced changes in the climate system. Fortunately, this debate has now been mostly put to rest with the release of the
fourth assessment
of
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC) last year, which stated: “Warming of the climate system is unequivocal….(and) most of the observed increase in global average temperatures since the mid-20th century is very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gas concentrations”
However, the variability vs. change discussion is now taking on a new life. This time the debate is not focused on attributing a cause to global warming but rather what to do about adapting to it impacts. Is improving management to current climate variability – an adaptation strategy? Or is climate adaptation more about developing strategies to manage the severe climate change impacts projected for 20-50 years in the future?
Questions such as these arose in a recent
workshop
that Google.org sponsored in Kenya on climate and health. "Are we talking about climate variability or climate change?" participants would ask during working groups focused on identifying strategies for reducing vulnerability to the emergence and spread of climate-sensitive diseases.
The crux of the variability vs. change discussion began when Phil Thornton from ILRI presented an overview of the state of the science on climate projections which highlighted the huge uncertainty in projections from the Global Climate Models (GCMs) out toward the middle and end of century. Then Caroline Kisia, executive director of
Action Africa Help International
(AAHI) and a medical doctor who works with communities in Kenya, spoke up and explained that the climate science stuff is interesting…but it is not clear what communities are supposed to do with this information – there is too much uncertainty to define any real actions here.
A few case studies were then presented showing how weather and seasonal climate projections have the potential for improving management for climate-sensitive diseases such as rift valley fever, malaria, meningitis and dengue. These seemed to be helpful, but how are they related to climate adaptation?
These are all good points and good questions. It seems that Caroline was asking the climate scientists and health experts in the room to put aside their fancy models and labels and just focus on the community needs.
Communities today across the globe, and especially in Africa, have many needs related to managing the risks of climate and weather– including floods, droughts, and climate-sensitive diseases. The workshop discussions highlighted the opportunities and challenges of connecting the climate and health sectors to build tools for managing these risks.
Ultimately, for the poorest regions of the world facing the increasing threats from climate change, adaption is in large part simply about a heightened need for communities and nations to do what they need to do anyway in pursuit of sustainable development – such as improve health services, develop drought-resistant crop options and diversify income sources.
Does this all then just come down to semantics? At the community level it may be best not to worry about labels such as variability, change or adaptation. However, the implications of these semantics may be far reaching as policymakers to develop much needed
climate adaptation assistance programs
and face important questions such as who should pay for climate adaptation in the poorest nations where communities are most vulnerable to but least responsible for the changes underway? And what should be paid for, that is, what constitutes climate adaptation?
These are tough questions. I am optimistic that if we don't get stuck on the semantics but keep our eyes on our goals we will find solutions to enable the most vulnerable populations to take the concrete actions needed to improve their health and livelihoods.
Rosemary Sang led a session on Rift Valley Fever (RVF) and the lessons learned from the
major RVF outbreak
in 2006-07 where 155 people died.
Posted by Amy Luers, Environment Program Manager, Predict and Prevent
Debating - and agreeing - on energy policy
9/19/08
Disagreements may make headlines in the energy policy debate, but you know we're getting somewhere when an oil company executive, a foreign policy expert, and Dan Reicher, Google.org's Director of Climate Change and Energy Initiatives, agree on the most effective way of lowering today's high energy costs: improving energy efficiency.
This past Friday, Dan Reicher participated with these and other experts in an
energy summit
convened by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee ahead of possible votes on legislative proposals pending in Congress. Energy has taken center stage in D.C. during this short session before the October recess, and more than two dozen senators participated in the summit's morning session alone.
Dan and other member of the panel stressed the importance of improving energy efficiency as the low-hanging fruit in the energy policy debate. He pointed to the role of IT in making homes, businesses, and appliances more efficient, and he called on Senators to consider setting more aggressive national efficiency standards like those in place today in California.
Dan also emphasized the need to extend renewable energy tax credits. During this discussion, senators expressed particular interest in the promise of
enhanced geothermal systems
(EGS) technology which Google has championed in recent months. Many participants also emphasized the need to make tax incentives more consistent and reliable to avoid sending "stop-and-go" signals to businesses and investors.
Check out the
video archive
of this summit to learn more.
Posted by
Harry Wingo, Policy Counsel, Google
Partnering with GE on clean energy
9/18/08
Yesterday, we
announced
that we're
joining forces
(PDF file) with
GE
to use technology, information and corporate resources to drive the changes necessary to empower consumers with better energy choices. Eric Schmidt and GE CEO Jeff Immelt discuss solutions to our energy challenge in this video:
Posted by Katy Bacon, Google.org Team
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
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