Posted on 11/23/2011 7:17:27 AM PST by MNDude
Says other institutions better placed to carry on effort
* Announces six other projects it will cease supporting
By Alexei Oreskovic
SAN FRANCISCO, Nov 22 (Reuters) - Google Inc has abandoned an ambitious project to make renewable energy cheaper than coal, the latest target of Chief Executive Larry Page's moves to focus the Internet giant on fewer efforts.
Google said on Tuesday that it was pulling the plug on seven projects, including Renewable Energy Cheaper than Coal as well as a Wikipedia-like online encyclopedia service known as Knol.
The plans, which Google announced on its corporate blog, represent the third so-called "spring cleaning" announcement that Google has made since Google co-founder Page took the reins in April.
The changes come as Google is facing stiff competition in mobile computing and social networking from Apple Inc and Facebook, and as some investors have groused about rising spending at the world's No.1 Internet search company.
"To recap, we're in the process of shutting down a number of products which haven't had the impact we'd hoped for, integrating others as features into our broader product efforts, and ending several which have shown us a different path forward," wrote Google Senior Vice President of Operations Urs Holzle in the blog post.
Google said that it believed other institutions were better positioned to take its renewable energy efforts "to the next level."
Google began making investments and doing research into technology to drive down the price of renewable energy in 2007, with a particular focus on solar power technology.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Funny how the Laws of Thermodynamics keep screwing things up.
LOL So true.
Google decided they didn’t want to get caught in the Obama payback scandal?
Damn...
well, how’s that “square circle” project coming along?
They didn’t mention their autonomous vehicle project.
I assume it’s still moving forward?
Idealism is a great thing until Mr.Reality parks his ass in your driveway....
In other words, the multi-billionaires at Google failed to secure hundreds of millions of dollars from Obama’s stash for their little experiments.
Well, as soon as they get their perpetual motion engine working, all they have to do is build a car around it.
Bingo!
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=3942164&page=1#.Ts0PkPL4IkI
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(no link)
GOOGLE, GE EYE GREEN ENERGY
San Jose Mercury News (CA) - Thursday, September 18, 2008
Author: Elise Ackerman, Mercury News
Google and General Electric announced Wednesday that they would work together to push the development of renewable energy.
The companies said they would team up to lobby the federal government to modernize the electrical grid and collaborate in the development of technologies for plug-in vehicles and geothermal energy.
“We are trying to make renewable energy cheaper than coal energy,” Google co-founder Larry Page said at a news conference Wednesday afternoon.
The partnership was unveiled at Google’s annual Zeitgeist conference, a two-day think-fest where Google’s business partners are invited to Mountain View to discuss global issues with leaders such as former vice president Al Gore and Mexican businessman Carlos Slim, as well as celebrities including Leonardo DiCaprio and Forest Whitaker.
(snip)
Business folks saw that the government won’t be dolling out pots of free gold to support the solar energy effort forever.
Let’s go ahead and not waste our money.
They must have some smart business people over there amongst the Obama lovers.
They must not have talked with Rossi.
IOW, Google decided to stop doing what isn't possible? Funny how these morons always refuse to waste their own money on utopian, “pie-in-the-sky”, unproven “alternative” energy sources...
Google has moved onto its next big project. The Magic Rainbow chasing machine.
They are also abandoning their project that would enable them to turn beverage bottles into pure gold using sunlight and water.
Google, why do you hate our planet? /s
Or they already have water heaters in their homes.
Makes me feel much better since I own 5 shares of GOOG.
If this does not indicate the commercial likelihood of solar energy, then nothing will.
Two cash flush, companies; motiviated by fame and share holder value, think it's a dead end; then the venture capital government programs are dead too.
It is arrogance to think that granting money to strange grant writers is sound fiscal policy when the likes of GE and Google who actually know something (at least GE does) bail out of same.
But then again, we live in the age of unchecked arrogance.
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