THE GOOGLE PLAN

Google has been using its unmatched resources to study New Energy and sees this moment in history as pivotal: “Right now we have a real opportunity to transform our economy from one running on fossil fuels to one largely based on clean energy. Technologies and know-how to accomplish this are either available today or are under development. We can build whole new industries and create millions of new jobs. We can cut energy costs, both at the gas pump and at home. We can improve our national security. And we can put a big dent in climate change…”

Google’s proposal:

By 2030, (1) cut fossil fuel-generated electricity 88%; (2) cut vehicle oil use 38% (cutting today’s 10 million barrels/day of imported oil 33%); and (3) cut power-sector CO2 emissions 95%, personal vehicle CO2 emissions 38% and overall U.S. emissions 48% (40% below today's level).

To do this, (1) deploy efficiency measures to cut power demand 33% (even though it is projected to grow 25%); (2) replace all coal and oil electricity generation and half of natural gas elctricity generation with New Energy by building (a) 380 gigawatts (GW) of wind (300 GW onshore + 80 GW offshore), (b) 250 GW of solar (170 GW photovoltaic (PV) + 80 GW concentrating solar power (CSP), (c) 80 GW of geothermal (15 GW conventional + 65 GW enhanced geothermal systems (EGS); and (3) increase plug-in electric vehicles (PHEVs) and all-electric vehicles (EVs) to 90% of new car sales so they become 42% of the total US fleet.

Google expects the plan to cost ~$4.4 trillion over 22 years but estimates the plan would generate $5.4 trillion in revenues, creating a net gain of ~$1 trillion.

The Google plan cites several sources that predict a massive increase in new jobs from such a program: (1) The Department of Energy (DOE) calculates 2/3 the amount of new wind Google proposes would create 476,000 jobs; (2) Navigant Consulting calculates that 15% of the amount of new solar proposed would create 440,000 new jobs; (3) Geothermal Energy Association figures suggest the proposed new geothermal would create about 60,000 new jobs. Dramatically improving efficiency and selling an average of 6+ million new plug-in vehicles per year would also significantly add jobs.

Implicit in the Google attitude is the New Certitude. It is a certitude of what is right, what is wrong, what is urgently needed AND a certitude that there are most certainly, in the endless world of space, time and cyber-reality, somebodies with better ideas.

“Our goal in presenting this first iteration of the Clean Energy 2030 proposal is to stimulate debate and we invite you to take a look and comment - or offer an alternative approach if you disagree. With a new Administration and Congress - and multiple energy-related imperatives - this is an opportune, perhaps unprecedented, moment to move from plan to action.”

Or, as Eric Schmidt, Google’s CEO and co-founder, said in his first public presentation of the plan (see THE GOOGLE NEW ENERGY PLAN), “Where’s YOUR plan?”

There is an enormous lot of chatter in the blogosphere about whether the Google plan (or the Gore plan or the Pickens plan) is doable. The most insightful of the chatter tends to ask not whether such plans are possible but whether there will be leadership courageous enough to make a commitment to one and competent enough to get it done. The grimmest of the chatter points out that sooner or later there will be no other choice.

Google is not new to the New Energy world. (See GOOGLE GOES GAA-GAA FOR NEW ENERGY) In pursuit of its goal to bring New Energy costs down to the level of conventional power generation costs (RE < coal, or Renewable Energy less expensive than Coal), Google (through Google.org) has invested in solar power plants, unconventional methods of harvesting wind energy and, more recently, geothermal energy.

Name therefore soon to be much more well-known: Potter Drilling. It is developing technology to pierce hard rock and get at deep geothermal resources.

From Google's Clean Energy 2030 plan. (click to enlarge)

Google whips out $4.4 trillion clean-energy plan
October 2, 2008 (Atlanta Business Chronicle)
and
Google presents $4.4 trillion energy plan ‘for debate’
John Letzing, October 1, 2008 (MarketWatch)

WHO
Google Inc. (Google cofounder/CEO), Google.org (Jeffery Greenblatt, manager, climate and energy-technology & author, Google proposal)

WHAT
Google’s Clean Energy 2030 is a $4.4 trillion plan to move the U.S. away from fossil fuels to New Energy.

From Google's Clean Energy 2030 plan. (click to enlarge)

WHEN
The plan allows for gradual changes in energy consumption and production with goals for the year 2030.

WHERE
- Google is based in Mountain View, Calif.
- The plan is for the U.S.

WHY
- Google representatives and critics like to point out the justification for the company’s interest in cheap, abundant energy is somewhat self-serving because it uses a huge amount of electricity to power its worldwide network of data centers.
- Items from the plan:
(a) better energy efficiency will make up for increased demand and the increased consumption by PHEVs and EVs,
(b) elimination of all coal and oil and half of natural gas use can only come by ramping up wind (onshore and offshore), solar (distributed and solar power plant generation), geothermal (conventional and system enhanced) and making a massive shift to plug-in vehicles.
- To achieve these goals, Greenblatt says, the country will have to improve electrical transmission capacity and invest in research to make renewable energy cheap and ubiquitous. Mileage standards for cars will have to be raised, and infrastructure like charging stations for electric vehicles will have to be encouraged and built.
- Google makes most of its money from advertising. Google.org manages the Google Foundation that has made many investments in cutting edge new Energy technology.
- The changeover to PHEVs and EVs proposed by Google will increase average vehicle fuel efficiency from 31mpg to 45 mpg by 2030 but will require upping the turnover in the U.S. fleet from 19 to 13 years (25 million new vehicle sales in 2030).

From Google's Clean Energy 2030 plan. (click to enlarge)

QUOTES
Jeffery Greenblatt, author, Google proposal: “Technologies and know-how to accomplish this are either available today or are under development…”