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pany that revolutionized the delivery of information now aims to do the same with electricity. Technology powerhouse Google today announced it would spend "tens of millions" of dollars next year in research and development and investments in an effort to drive down the cost of large-scale renewable energy to make it cheaper than coal. Not only will Google be hiring engineers and energy experts for its new initiative, known as RE<C (renewable energy at less cost than coal), but it also will make investments in panies—starting with those that focus on solar-thermal technology, enhanced geothermal, and high-altitude wind power. "Cheap renewable energy is not only critical for the environment but also vital for economic development in many places where there is limited affordable energy of any kind," said Sergey Brin, Google cofounder and president of technology, in a prepared statement.
Coal supplies 40 percent of the world’s electricity and more than half of . power, and if current trends continue, it is expected to grab an ever increasing share because it is a plentiful and cheap fuel for big consumers like China and the United States. But coal is also the worst fuel in its production of the global warming gas carbon dioxide. Google cofounder Larry Page said pany’s goal is to produce one gigawatt of renewable energy capacity that is cheaper than coal within "years, not decades." Google says that’s enough electricity to power a city the size of San Francisco (about 330,000 households).
Google, located in Mountain View, Calif., said it was initially working with two other panies. They are eSolar, of Pasadena, which is specializing in solar-thermal power, using large fields of mirrors to concentrate sunlight and generate steam to run utility-scale electric turbines, and Makani of Alameda, which is developing wind energy technology that takes advantage of the much stronger and more reliable currents available at high altitude