Google Makes a Mistake

As you can see from the linked stories on the left of this article, Google is quite a big proponent of renewable energy. They have made all kinds of investments in wind, solar, geothermal, etc. Some are to generate clean energy for their own needs, others are more akin to financing deals to help big wind and solar farms get built. In any case, it is very commendable work and if more big corporations had the long-term vision of Google, the world would definitely be in better shape.

 

But sadly, one of their most promising clean energy projects has just gotten the axe. Renewable Energy Cheaper Than Coal (known by the acronym RE<C), which was launched in 2007 via the Google.org Foundation, aimed to drive down the cost of renewable energy via R&D efforts until it was cheaper than coal, the magic point at which adoption would reach escape velocity.