Google Becomes A Utility

The hubris continues as Google, the Internet search engine company, announces plans to saunter into the unfamiliar world of alternative energy. According to a news report:

As part of a project announced Tuesday, the Internet search leader and its philanthropic arm will pour hundreds of millions of dollars into a quest to lower the cost of producing electricity from renewable energy sources such as wind and the sun.

If Google realizes its goal, the cost of solar power should fall by 25 to 50 per cent, co-founder Larry Page said in an interview.

The Mountain View-based company initially hopes to harvest cleaner- burning electricity to meet its own needs and sell power to other users or license the technology that emerges from its initiative, dubbed “Renewable Energy Cheaper Than Coal,” or “REC.”

“If we achieve these goals, we are going to be in the (electricity) business in a very big way,” Page said. “We should be able to make a lot of money from this.”

John Reosti wrote about Google’s goal of saving the planet with its shareholders’ money in the current edition of Foundation Watch. The article is called “Google.org: Reaching for Utopia.”