Ross Koningstein and David Fork report that renewable energy technologies will not save us. Starting in 2007, Google committed significant resources to tackle the climate and energy problems. A few of these efforts proved very successful - Google deployed some of the most energy-efficient data centers in the world, purchased large amounts of renewable energy, and offset what remained of its carbon footprint. The boldest energy move was an effort known as RE-C, which aimed to develop renewable energy sources that would generate electricity more cheaply than coal-fired power plants.
The company announced that Google would help promising technologies mature by investing in start-ups and conducting its own internal R and D. Its aspirational goal- to produce a gigawatt of renewable power more cheaply than a coal-fired plant could, and to achieve this in years, not decades. Unfortunately, not every Google moon shot leaves Earth orbit. In 2011, the company decided that RE-C was not on track to meet its target and shut down the initiative. At the start of RE-C, we had shared the attitude of many stalwart environmentalists - They felt that with steady improvements to renewable energy technologies, our society could stave off catastrophic climate change.They now know that to be a false hope.
original URL: https://spectrum.ieee.org/energy/renewables/what-it-would-really-take-to-reverse-climate-change
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