Google.org is the charitable arm of Internet search engine company Google.

It lists its mission as helping with global poverty, energy and the environment. It is a for-profit charity, which means it is taxable. This also allows them to lobby and fund beneficial commercial sector initiatives.

The organization has committed $75 million in investments and grants as of January 2008. To fund the organization, Google granted them 3 million shares during their IPO. As of December 8, 2008, at a price of $310, Google.org's 3 million shares have an approximate value of about $1 billion. Google has also pledged to contribute one percent of their annual profits to their charitable organizations.[1]

Among its first projects is to develop a mass produced plug-in hybrid electric vehicle that can attain 100 mpg (miles per gallon) (see vehicle-to-grid).[2]

In November 2007, Google.org announced RE<C (Renewable Energy Cheaper Than Coal), a project that will invest upwards of several hundred million dollars in order to produce renewable energy at a profit from wind and solar sources, particularly solar thermal energy. RE<C, as the name suggests, has the ultimate goal of creating more than a gigawatt of power (enough to power a city the size of San Francisco) from renewable sources that would be cheaper than energy produced from coal.[3]

Larry Brilliant

The director as of 2007 is Dr. Larry Brilliant.[4]

Contents

Major initiatives

Google.org's five major initiatives, announced in January 2008, are: [5]

  • Develop Renewable Energy Cheaper Than Coal (RE<C): create utility-scale electricity from clean renewable energy sources that is cheaper than electricity produced from coal.
  • Accelerate the Commercialization of Plug-In Vehicles (RechargeIT): seed innovation, demonstrate technology, inform the debate, and stimulate market demand to foster mass commercialization of plug-in vehicles.
  • Predict and Prevent: identify "hot spots" and enable rapid response to emerging threats, such as infectious disease and climate risk.
  • Inform and Empower to Improve Public Services: use information to empower citizens and communities, providers, and policymakers to improve the delivery of essential public services (such as education, health, water and sanitation) in the developing world.
  • Fuel the Growth of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises: increase the flow of risk capital to small and medium-sized businesses in the developing world.

Renewable energy

In 2008, Google.org joined a number of renewable energy initiatives, including:

  • investing $130 million in eSolar for solar thermal plants
  • presenting at the Renewable Energy Finance Forum-Wall Street, held June 18-19, 2008 at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. Google.org Climate Change and Energy Initiatives Director, Dan Reicher, will chair the opening remarks[6].
  • investing $10 million in Makani Power for kite systems that tap into jetstreams
  • Filing a patent application for floating data centers powered by wave power.[7]

Google Foundation

Google.org also manages the Google Foundation.[8] The foundation was founded earlier, with Google's help and with similar stated goals, and is a non-profit organization under section 501(c)(3) of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code.

Its board consists of Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, and Google vice-president Sheryl Sandberg. The two officer positions, besides Brilliant's as executive director, are both held by Gregory Miller, Google.org's Senior Advisor & Chief of Investments.

Google contributes services of some of its own employees to the foundation's work, and also funded the foundation with $90 million late in 2005.

See also

  • Low cost solar cell
  • v2g

References

  1. ^ "About Us". google.org. Retrieved on 2008-01-07.
  2. ^ Hafner, Katie (2006-09-14). "Philanthropy Google’s Way: Not the Usual". New York Times. Retrieved on 2008-01-07.
  3. ^ "Powering a clean energy revolution". Google (2007-11-27). Retrieved on 2008-03-31.
  4. ^ "Google Names Larry Brilliant as Executive Director of Google.org". Google, Inc.. Retrieved on 2008-01-07.
  5. ^ Google.org
  6. ^ "Renewable Energy Finance Forum-Wall Street". reffwallstreet.org. Retrieved on 2008-04-28.
  7. ^ http://thoughtsonglobalwarming.blogspot.com/2008/09/google-files-patent-for-wave-powered.html
  8. ^ http://www.google.org/about.html

External links

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