Googleis looking to expand its
environmental credentials with the use of more renewable energy
sources.
The move follows a similar announcement made earlier this week
by
Hewlett-Packard, which is expanding its use of solar and wind
power.
Google has announced a new strategic initiative to develop
electricity from renewable energy sources that will be cheaper than
electricity produced from coal.
In 2008, Google expects to spend tens of millions of pounds on
research and development and related investments in renewable
energy. As part of its capital planning process, the company also
anticipates investing hundreds of millions of pounds in
breakthrough renewable energy projects that can generate positive
returns.
"We have gained expertise in designing and building large-scale,
energy-intensive facilities by building efficient datacentres,"
said Larry Page, Google co-founder and president of products. "We
want to apply the same creativity and innovation to the challenge
of generating renewable electricity at globally significant scale,
and produce it cheaper than from coal."
Page said the firm wanted to ultimately generate one gigawatt of
renewable energy capacity, which is the equivalent of powering a
city the size of San Francisco.