Breakthrough Renewable Energy at a price lower than power from coal

Background

In November of 2007, Google launched an initiative called “Renewable Energy Cheaper than Coal” or RE less than c.

Why RE less than c ?

Because coal is cheap, coal is the predominant source of both existing and new electricity capacity worldwide. And the greenhouse gas emissions produced from coal burning are a major contributor to global climate change, our greatest environmental challenge. However, today renewable electricity costs too much to compete with coal. Making electricity produced from renewable energy cheaper than coal, at utility scale, would be a key part of reducing global climate change. But it is an expensive undertaking.

As a result, renewable electricity has barely made a dent in global or U.S. capacity or usage.

For decades talented people have been working to lower the cost of renewable energy, and there has been great progress. But we face a simple economic reality: whether for cars, computers, hamburgers or electrons, price matters. And even though they’re attractive, green electrons simply cost too much today to compete with coal. As a result, the percentage of global electricity powered by renewables has actually decreased in recent years. RE less than c addresses this disparity – and could become an important tool in confronting the climate crisis.

Google believes there are two funding gaps in renewable energy today, and will look for opportunities to bridge them:

Research and Development. While government and university-supported research has contributed a great deal to the development of renewable energy, there has been inadequate funding, and the focus has often not been on moving technologies toward the market place.

Early utility-scale funding. There is insufficient development of early high-risk commercial-scale clean energy projects, which are risky for traditional investors. This period of early funding, before a technology becomes commercially viable, is known as the “Valley of Death.”

Read More…Google’s Goal: Renewable Energy Cheaper than Coal – Creates renewable energy R&D group and supports breakthrough technologies

Breakthrough Renewable Energy at a price lower than power from coal

Now, almost two years later to the day on 9 September 2009 in a Reuters interview Google’s Green Energy Czar Bill Weihl said there is a lack of companies that have ideas that would be considered breakthroughs in the green technology sector.

Bill Weihl

“I’d like to see $20 billion or $30 billion for 10 yrs (for the sector),” Weihl said. “That would be fabulous. It’s pretty clear what we have seen isn’t enough.”

Read More…Google Plans New Mirror For Cheaper Solar Power

Breakthrough Renewable Energy at a price lower than power from coal

Green Technology sector Breakthrough! Clean electricity 90% lower cost than coal.

Summary

Companies like Google that have the vision to replace fossil fuels with renewable energy sources are clearly frustrated by the slow pace or even existence of “Breakthrough Discoveries” in the clean electricity sector. Also it is clear that many billions of dollars are needed and ready to flow into new breakthrough technologies.

Not only is CleanElectricityCompany.com’s “Electricity From Water” Know-how cheaper than coal, it has no fuel costs, but in addition from a capital cost viewpoint the same capacity output can be had for one tenth of the capital cost.

So imagine getting ten power plants for the price of one, and not having to budget for fuel costs.

Our “Electricity From Water” discovery is a game changer. Not only versus fossil fuels, but also versus all other renewable sources of generating electric power, sources like solar, wind, geothermal, waves, and tidal.

The fact is the discovery is done!

clean electricity