Google Files First Solar Patent, Builds R&D Team 118
bizwriter writes "Google has moved beyond investing and using solar power and has started on serious R&D work in the field. Its first patent application in solar energy technology just became public, and the company is staffing a new R&D group 'to develop electricity from renewable energy sources at a cost less than coal' at 'utility scale.'"
Re:Another attempt (Score:3, Informative)
Google's also been really involved in enhanced geothermal, one of my favorite techs. For those not familiar, here's [renewableenergyworld.com] a good rundown of its promise and pitfalls. Namely, it's baseload, works basically anywhere on the planet (all that changes is the required depth of the borehole), is renewable with virtually no environmental impact, and can provide thousands of times more power than we currently consume. At the same time, it's not widespread currently for one main reason -- not that it doesn't work, but that it doesn't work *reliably*. When you fracture the rock to pump in water to heat, the fractures go wherever the heck *they* want, and in many cases your water just seeps away (also, the fraccing can cause minor -- up to just over mag. 5 in theory in most places, lower in practice -- earthquakes). Here's [gtherm.net] one of the latest ways around those pitfalls, using a closed-loop system with an underground heat exchanger instead of fraccing a new reservoir. That also has the advantage (or potential disadvantage, depending on how you look at it) of not bringing minerals back up with the water.
Re:What a waste. (Score:5, Informative)
Solar is usually about an order of magnitude more land-dense than hydroelectric (when you include the area taken up by the reservoir), and about on par with coal (when you include the land taken up by the coal mines required to fuel the plant and the few decades it takes life to regrow on them after an exhausted mine is abandoned)
Daily intermittence is readily countered by a wide range of factors.
* Thermal storage
* Pumped hydro energy storage (works with any type of power; already widespread in China for day/night demand averaging) (does not require a river or a large impounded area!)
* Integrated peaking (you already have a thermal power plant; adding a supplemental source of heat for when demand exceeds supply costs you almost nothing)
* The natural correlation between solar intensity and power consumption (night is off-peak, sunny days have more AC load, etc - -it's not perfect, but it's a nice start)
* Generation-source diversity (wind, solar, tide, wave, etc do not all line up with each other in terms of what generates when)
* Long-distance HVDC power transmission lets you take advantage of the fact that the sun doesn't set in all places at the same time.
* Smart grids and demand-flexible industry allow to shift when power is drawn to when it's abundant.
Re:Evil (Score:2, Informative)
Unlike copyright, patents actually expire. In the extremely unlikely event Google coming up with something good, they get a short term monopoly on it. Good for them, and anyone else doing something in the physical world. A generation later, this is as good as public domain and anyone can implement it.
If they're locking away uber tech, it still doesn't matter. We miss out now, but our kids will have access. Unless you believe "my uncle's friend came up with a way to save fuel consumption but got bought out by $OIL_COMPANY" conspiracies.