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Google: Now With More Green
Image source: google.com
Google is well-known for its green initiatives. The company supports and invests in renewable energy, has tons of environmental features available on the Google Earth program, and encourages green initiatives amongst employees. Now they are intending to become directly involved in the deployment of energy technologies.
According to Google Director of Climate Change and Energy Initiatives, Dan Reicher:
“We’ll make a step soon into energy projects. Energy innovation to me means a real pipeline that goes from basic research to applied research to demonstration projects to the scale up and from there to full commercial deployment. It’s a long pipeline and to be honest we don’t do a very good job of moving technologies through this pipeline.”
Using the coined Googlers phrase “from light bulb to light bulb” to describe their vision, Reicher said they want to help move new technologies from the idea (a thought light bulb) to the product (a material light bulb). Although the use of Clean Energy is a great idea, there are obstacles to overcome. For one, Reicher and fellow panelists expect the energy R&D funding to cost $15 billion per year. In this economy, that may be a tough thing to afford.
More research needs to be done on possible projects and funding ideas, but I’m sure we will continue to see more great green works from Google in the future.
By Heidi Marshall
Tags: clean energy, Climate change, google, green initiatives
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