Google, Chevron, Goldman Sachs Build Mirrors in Desert to Beat Coal With Solar
May 27th, 2008For years, I wanted to believe that Peak Oil could bring this horror show down. My problem, of course, was that I couldn’t ignore simple, observable realities and the fact that evil people have many plans up their sleeves… Unfortunately, this horror show grinds on, whether we want it to, or not.
—Shell’s $30 per Barrel Oil Shale Process
Maybe the shrill energy scarcity bloggers know more than Google, Chevron and Goldman Sachs, but I strongly doubt it.
Via: Bloomberg:
Along a dusty two-lane highway in California’s Mojave Desert, 550,000 mirrors point skyward to make steam for electricity. Google Inc., Chevron Corp. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. are betting this energy will become cheaper than coal.
The 1,000-acre plant uses concentrated sunlight to generate power for as many as 112,500 homes in Southern California. Rising natural gas prices and emissions limits may make solar thermal the fastest-growing energy source in the next decade, say backers including Vinod Khosla, the founder of computer maker Sun Microsystems Inc.
Costs for the technology will fall below coal as soon as 2020, the U.S. government estimates. JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Wells Fargo & Co. invested last year in the biggest solar plant built in a generation; Chevron and Google are funding research; and Goldman Sachs is seeking land to lease as demand outpaces wind turbines and geothermal.
“Solar thermal can provide a substantial amount of our power, more than 50 percent,” says Khosla, who along with the Menlo Park, California, venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers led a $40 million investment in solar power producer Ausra Inc. “This is an industrial-strength solution.”
Related: Kleiner Perkins: Al Gore and Colin Powell, Together at Last to Save the Planet
