Google retires initiative to make renewable energy cheaper than coal

Energy Efficiency News reports internet giant Google has quietly announced that it is to retire its ‘Renewable Energy Cheaper than Coal’ or REGoogle spearheaded various projects and made investments in companies working on potentially ‘breakthrough’ technologies, including $168 million for a solar tower project in California and geothermal mapping. As part of its broader renewable energy programme Google has made several investments totaling more than $850 million in the US and Germany.
Google renewables investments include $280 million in a SolarCity fund to help provide innovative financing for residential solar projects, $157 million for the Alta Wind Energy Center to harness winds of the Mojave and a German photovoltaics project.

Google retired its PowerMeter initiative that gives users updates about their energy use in September because it was not able to scale up the project. Preliminary results from a pilot program between IBM and the City of Dubuque, Iowa, indicated strong engagement by residents and energy savings of up to 11%.