Google Plans to Produce a Gigawatt of Clean Energy, Cheaper Than Coal

Google announced plans to produce a gigawatt of renewable energy within the next few years and wants to produce them cheaper than coal. This power will likely powers its data centers and the excess energy will be provided to the public.

Google calls this initiative as “RE < C” or “Renewable Energy Cheaper Than Coal”. Google’s data centers consume so much power mostly from coal based power plants, so they want to provide clean energy to supply their own needs and others. Google’s Co-Founder Larry Page said the initiative would spend tens of millions of dollars on Research and Development and hundreds of million dollars in renewable energy projects and startups.

The company will try to produce power from Solar, wind power and geothermal systems and develop a cost effective technology based on it. And also they plan to license the developed technology to other customers. Google will have a dedicated energy division with the company and probably hire 20 to 30 engineers and experts.

Bill Weihl, Google’s green energy czar, said they plan not only to produce a clean renewable energy from various sources but also provide them cheaper than existing coal power. Google’s will cost about one to three cents per kilowatt hour, coal on the other hand costs about four cents per kilowatt hour.

Google is already working with two renewable energy companies, eSolar, Solar thermal company and Makani Power, Wind power company and may have investment in both of them.

If Google can actually successfully develop clean energy sources that are cheaper than coal and create a business around licensing them (through their investments or their own technology), it would do nothing short of revolutionizing the energy industry.