Google breaks into the energy industry its own way

Google announced its RE<C ("Renewable Energy Cheaper Than Coal") project yesterday: a research and development project aimed at bringing alternative energy sources closer to affordability.

With the spotlight recently turned upon data centers, which US Assistant Secretary of Energy Alexander Karsner termed "centers of enormous waste" yesterday, Google is asserting its intentions to change this reputation, and wisely so, as the company's tremendous need for energy-hungry server facilities only continues to grow.

But Google's search for alternative and renewable energy sources won't just be another effort to find more power for the company's consumptive needs. Instead, the project -- under the auspices of Google's philanthropic division, google.org -- it hopes to accelerate the development of certain alternative fuels to bring them to affordability.

By doing this, Google hopes to gain a stake in a new energy industry, one based around renewable resources instead of exhaustible ones.

Google stated that it will be working with a variety of organizations in the field, including companies, research and development laboratories, and universities. Two of the companies Google has been working with -- eSolar Inc. and Makani Power Inc. -- specialize in solar thermal power and high-altitude wind energy extraction respectively.

Pasadena, California-based eSolar offers a modular, scalable solar power collection architecture that is capable of generating from 25 to 500 megawatts of power. Google believes that with appropriate development, this will soon be a cheaper system than burning coal, the predominant source of low-cost energy today.

By comparison, New York City's total energy need for 2008 was forecast at around 2,605 MW.

Makani Power is in the business of designing terrestrial wind parks, but is currently designing membrane structures to cover large areas of sky which will harness the stronger and more reliable winds there. Capturing even a small fraction of high altiude wind energy flux, Makani says, could meet current global electricity needs.

Google's aspiration for a stake in the energy industry is one of the riskier ventures the search giant has taken. With time, however, the research it funds could help usher in a new era for power.