Google Funds Thermal Project

Google is investing $10 million in a new geothermal technology as part of its campaign to stimulate development of alternative energy sources that will produce electricity more cheaply than coal. The technology, called enhanced geothermal systems (EGS), involves drilling down to hot layers of the earth’s crust and pumping in water to create steam, which is used to power turbines. EGS is an improvement on century-old technology that taps into geysers, hot springs, and volcanoes. Roughly $6 million of Google’s investment will be in an EGS company, AltaRock Energy, which also has received funding from Silicon Valley venture capital firms. The remainder of the Google investment will go to a company that specializes in hard-rock drilling and to Southern Methodist University to update geothermal maps of North America. The key to keeping EGS costs down is finding hot rocks close to the surface, as in Nevada and parts of Pennsylvania. View a Google video on EGS technology below: