Google to Outspend US Government on Environment
It is always a good day for me when I get to write about Google. But the day gets even better when I get to combine Google with the environment; something that happens more often than you would imagine. With my ongoing report on the US 09 Budget, I’m well aware of just how little the US Government is going to be putting in to the environment.
Let’s just make a note here – Green Options could invest more in the environment than the US Federal Government is planning.
A report is circulating regarding my favorite tech company, that they are pledging themselves to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in to big alternative-energy projects started by commercial businesses. They plan to focus on projects that have traditionally had a hard time getting financing. Thus, I would imagine the majority of such projects will get financing, considering Bush’s position on such things.
The executive in charge of their environmental push, Dan Reicher, said Wednesday that “There are a lot of technologies that get to the pilot scale and look promising, but the first few large commercial projects deploying those technologies, financing those can be extremely difficult.”
“Often the usual equity and debt players will say come back to us when you’ve demonstrated this at scale,” said Reicher, director of climate and energy initiatives for Google’s philanthropic arm, Google.org.
Reicher referred to the “Valley of Death,” a term used in the technology industry to describe the difference between successfully developing a new technology and amassing scale. This is something that Google is aware of, and their pledge to invest such moneys as they can in to projects is hoped to alleviate this problem.
“When you get to building a commercial-scale project in the energy world, you can be looking easily at hundreds of millions or even across the billion dollar threshold,” Reicher said. “Over years we’ll be looking at hundreds of millions of dollars. So we’re very mindful of the Valley of Death.”
Google has already committed large amounts of finances to various green projects, both within their own company and without. They’ve committed $20 million to funding start-up firms researching solar-thermal and high-altitude wind power, and another $10 million to Pasadena, California-based eSolar Inc to support research and development on solar thermal power.
Authors Note - if you want to weigh Google’s proposed spending, check out my three part series on the US Budget. Check out Budget 09: How’d the Environment Do – the Good, the Bad and the Ugly.
Reuters via ENN - Google to help green technologies amass scale
Photo Courtesy of End User via Flickr
This is great news. It show that good/great things can and will happen when the governemtn gets out of the way, rather than inserting itself needlessly.
You got to be kidding me Carlos!
This is all the more reason for the government to get involved. Just because someone else is stepping in to pick up the slack doesn’t mean the government should just give up. Google won’t be able to pay for all the expenses that need to be paid and energy conglomerates have to much money in the traditional system to put their position in risk by investing in these alternatives. The government is the only entity that can risk these billions of dollars on ecological issues.
I find myself doing this often now, and oddly I feel bad about it. I think mostly because of how much I loathe things like the “Bush administration” uglier words should be used, but I’m just not hat kind of guy. The point of my post though is to ask, if you’re doing the research and you’re gonna make the statement why not back it up with a number? So the ‘09 budget does an awful job in terms of investing in alternate energy, well how bad of a job $1 million, $5 million, $100 million? It just seems insincere to say I’ve got a magic number behind this card that makes those guys everyone hates look bad but I’m not gonna share it because I’m too lazy or because of the scale of such numbers it makes it look less bad and I’m too lazy to explain why it’s bad even if it looks big…I maybe picking nits I’ve been accused of worse but this kind of things irks me because it’s the kind of information I need most when talking about such issues in conversation with people of a different view point. Just my $.02
This is fantastic, its time America looks to alternative sources for energy. The US is very behind and other countries are leaving the US in the dust.
for example India’s Air Car, which uses yeah you guessed it, AIR.
Government SHOULD be involved in repairing the environment, but they are too busy occupying nations that don’t even want them there to worry about anything else except the “War” on Terror.
I think Global Warming sounds terrorizing enough.
Google is doing a great job, and I hope other companies will follow. I know that Bank of America’s new building is one of the greenest buildings for a company of that size worldwide.
Nothing will change until US, India, & China pass laws and use renewable energy sources, increase the minimum MPG per vehicle, and find a solution to the ever growing problem of packaging, which is 33% of the trash in the United States.
COMPLETELY disagree with the comment from Carlos.
The Government should be DOING this, not letting some third party do it for them! We look to our country’s leaders for actual leadership in things that will help us live now and in the future. Energy is a crisis, and taking the short-sighted position that the world will fix itself is just patently ridiculous. The United States government shouldn’t be spending hundreds of millions on energy strategy and technology, they should be spending BILLIONS.
Kudos to Google for making up for the government’s failings.
Good work Google!
US gov not so good.
Really very interesting idea.
is it any surprise? Google has money, the US does not.
I agree with carlos. The government is going broke and we need to cut spending big time. But not only in green things. There is plenty of other stuff that could be cut.
I think that other organizations and businesses should step up and foot the bill.