MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA, USA, October 3, 2008. A Google analysis, led by Jeffery Greenblatt, suggests a potential path to weaning the US off coal and oil for electricity generation by 2030 (with some remaining use of natural gas as well as nuclear), and cutting oil use for cars by 40%.
Google says it aims to stimulate debate and that now, with the US election coming up, is “an opportune, perhaps unprecedented, moment to move from plan to action.”
Google has identified three main focus areas to achieve the goals set out in its report:
1. Reduce demand by doing more with less
The first step is to look at energy efficiency. Google started with looking at its own buildings and identified US$5 million in building efficiency investments with a 2.5 year payback. It has also designed its own data centres to run more efficiently.
Last year, Bill Weihl, Google’s Green Energy Czar, worked with industry partners to create the Climate Savers Computing Initiative to raise energy efficiency standards for personal computers and servers. These standards could cut energy consumption by the equivalent of 10-20 coal-fired power plants by 2010.
Google also says the US Government can have a big impact on achieving greater efficiency. California's aggressive building codes, efficiency standards and utility programs have helped the state keep per-capita energy use flat for years, while consumption in much of the rest of the country has grown significantly. Enacting similar policies at the national level would help even more, according to the search engine giant.
Another way of achieving savings is through smart meters and real-time pricing.
2. Develop renewable energy that is cheaper than coal (RE<C)
The US electricity grid relies on coal for 50% of its power. Google wants to help catalyse the development of renewable energy that is price-competitive with coal, and has identified wind, solar thermal, and advanced geothermal as having a great potential.
This year Google has invested more than US$45 million in start-up companies with wind, solar and geothermal technologies through its Renewable Energy Cheaper than Coal initiative (RE<C), however, the company says this is just a drop compared to the flood that is needed.
“Massive” private investment is required, and federal R&D spending must increase. Google also calls on the Government to enact measures supporting the rapid deployment and scaling of clean technologies such as long-term tax support and national renewable energy standards.
In addition to bringing down the cost of renewables, Google believes a price must be put on carbon through cap-and-trade or a carbon tax.
3. Electrify transportation and re-invent the electric grid
A "smart grid" would allow the charging of vehicles when electricity is cheap, and maybe even make some money by selling unused power back to the grid.
Google says plug-in cars are on their way, with GM, Toyota and other manufacturers planning introductions in the next two years. Google itself has a small fleet of Toyota Prius and Ford Escape plug-in conversions, as a part of its RechargeIT program.
However, to successfully put millions of plug-in cars on the road and fuel them with green electricity, a smart grid that manages when to charge and how people are billed is needed. A smart grid could also provide for the two-way flow of electricity, as well as large-scale integration of intermittent solar and wind energy.
Much of the technology in the US’ current electrical grid was developed in the 1960s, and is “wasteful and not very smart”, according to Google.
The company has already partnered with GE to help accelerate the development of the smart grid and support building new transmission lines to harness the US’ vast renewable energy resources.
Renewable Energy Focus © Copyright 2008, Elsevier Ltd, All rights reserved.