Google.org Puts $10.25M Into Geothermal Research

By Doug Caverly - Tue, 08/19/2008 - 12:03

"Renewable energy cheaper than coal" comes back

Utility bills are always annoying, and as energy costs continue to rise, they'll become even worse. Google wants to combat this problem, though, and so Google.org has invested $10.25 million in enhanced geothermal systems (EGS).

"EGS expands the potential of geothermal energy by orders of magnitude," explains an official release. "The traditional geothermal approach relies on finding naturally occurring pockets of steam and 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."

Google.org

It sounds like a process of creating and then harnessing hundreds of Old Faithfuls. Even accounting for concerns about causing seismic activity, this is about as safe and clean as things get.

It also has the potential to pretty much meet all needs, with Google.org stating, "A recent MIT report on EGS estimates that just 2% of the heat below the continental United States between 3 and 10 kilometers, depths within the range of current drilling technology, is more than 2,500 times the country's total annual energy use."

A tiny portion of the $10.25 million will go towards mapping all this renewable geothermal energy. The rest will be aimed at making EGS technologies cheaper and more efficient.

News Tags: Google, Google.org, RE<C

About the author:
Doug is a staff writer for WebProNews. Visit WebProNews for the latest eBusiness news.

5 Comments

By SensiClear (WPN reader) - Thu, 08/28/2008 - 19:17

It's great Google is using

It's great Google is using some of their money for a new energy saving means. I believe when the time comes many companies would follow and attempt to develop new methods for savings.

By Mothers Jewelry (WPN reader) - Fri, 08/22/2008 - 13:13

Helps Us

Google has the money for this and at least it's being used for a good cause. I spend a lot with Google so I am glad they are using it for something that can help all of us.

By tropicwater (WPN reader) - Wed, 08/20/2008 - 08:31

geothermal energy save money

Google server must be incredibely big and need enormous electiricity. So they search some alternative energy to cut down energy cost.

By tanzanite (WPN reader) - Wed, 08/20/2008 - 01:08

Makes total sense

Investing in future semi-renewable energy sources only makes sense for Google both from a smart business perspective, and from a shareholder sperspective, since the giant would be smart to make moves into the green sector and offset it's own energy costs.

By Tristan (WPN reader) - Tue, 08/19/2008 - 15:01

Google needs to search for geothermal

"A tiny portion of the $10.25 million will go towards mapping all this renewable geothermal energy. The rest will be aimed at making EGS technologies cheaper and more efficient."

So in other words, they will spend some money searching for the geothermal 'hotspots' (pardon the pun!) Why don't they just save some money and use Google Search? Or is their search engine not yet powerful enough for such feats? :)