The recent news of Google being prepared to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in big  alternative-energy projects;  traditionally touted as 'radical' and  hard to fund, may be the turning point for the renewable energy sector in within next decade.

Google is no stranger to working toward environmentally friendly energy systems, for example they purposely built a new data centre in Pryor, Oklahoma so that they could utilize some of the hydroelectric power there.

The RE<C Initiative has been setup by Google to: "...develop electricity from renewable energy sources that is cheaper than electricity produced from coal with a goal of producing one gigawatt of renewable energy capacity - enough to power a city the size of San Francisco - in years, not decades."

So far Google has pledged $10 million to Pasadena, California-based eSolar Incorporated to support research and development on solar thermal power. It has also invested $10 million in Alameda, California-based Makani Power Inc, who are developing high altitude wind technologies.

It seems likely that many a Google Green dollar will be spent with rumours  that the search giant has intentions of investing at least $100 million into the Re<C initiative. If this happens Google would be investing more into renewable energy than the US Department of Energy, which in 2006 spent $65 million on research and development of solar and wind energy.

Quote of the day from Mr Larry Page (Co Founder of Google)

"If we meet this goal, and large-scale renewable deployments are cheaper than coal, the world will have the option to meet a substantial portion of electricity needs from renewable sources and significantly reduce carbon emissions. We expect this would be a good business for us as well."

Sam