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Google is entering the field of renewable energy
February, 2008: Two years ago, Google opened itself to the solar world and installed a massive PV installation at its corporate headquarters. Now the Internet company wants to make money from developing and operating other renewable energy power plants. The self-anointed world-changers from Mountain View have set their sights rather high. But the technology, with which they expect to achieve their goals does not even exist yet.
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© eSolar
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So far, the solar thermal tower power plant from eSolar is only a computer simulation, but definitely a fixture in Google‘s plans.
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Google wants to make a big splash in the world of renewable energy sources. So far, all that is known is that the successful Internet company has ambitious goals. First, Google wants to build power plants that have a combined capacity of 1 GW – solar thermal power plants, wind power plants and geothermal plants. Second, the installations will produce electricity that is cheaper than from a coal-fired power plant – at costs of about 1 to 3 ¢ per kWh. Third, their construction is slated to take years rather than decades, according to an announcement at the end of November by Google founder Larry Page.
In order to reach these extremely ambitious goals, Google wants to, on one hand, hire 30 engineers and conduct its own research – scores of millions of dollars have been made available this year alone, the company said. On the other hand, the company wants to get into power plant operation. Google plans to raise several hundred million dollars in the next few years for that purpose, Page said in a press conference. The company did not disclose what technologies or what locations it plans to use. The same can be said for the so-called partnerships with the start-ups eSolar Inc. and Makani Power Inc. They could be limited to develop cooperations or could include financial participation. Google and the companies agreed to keep the details secret, Page said. What is clear is that the Internet giant is more interested in the further development of innovative ideas and less on mature products. Makani, for example, is developing a type of kite that will convert constant and high winds into electricity – somehow.
eSolar, in contrast, is working on a technology that is a bit more proven. The company plans solar-thermal tower power plants. In contrast to other companies that are currently developing large solar-thermal power plants (see PI 11/2007, p. 136), eSolar can only show off its computer animations – and Dale Rogers, who earned his stripes at the solar thermal research plant Solar One in the 1990s. That is actually where Rogers got the concept. eSolar wants to achieve Google‘s target of producing solar electricity for less than from a coal-fired plant primarily by having the heliostats mass produced in China. Heliostats reflect the sun to a steam generator in the tower, according to solar thermal expert Reiner Buck, from the German Aerospace Center (DLR). A heliostat with a half meter of reflective surface is slated to cost only $50. »That is very little,« said Buck, who knows eSolar from his own research.
There isn‘t even a uniform technology for making the receiver, which vaporizes water to directly operate a turbine. The forerunner Solar One had major material problems in this area, because the receiver combined the vaporizer and superheater into one part, Buck said. The result was major thermal stress. The new concepts, though, call for receivers that clearly delineate between the vaporizer and superheater. But »they have to develop those themselves,« the DLR researcher said. It is questionable whether that can happen in a matter of years, as Google hopes. The comparison with the development of parabolic trough plants suggests however that it could more likely take decades. On the other hand, eSolar boss Bill Gross sets up new companies with little trouble and certainly has more than a few success stories under his belt. One of the them is that there is a 1.6 MW PV installation on Google‘s corporate headquarters in Mountain View, California.
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