Google search for cleaner energy unveiled by CEO

Google aims to do for the power grid what it did for the Web.

Having conquered the market for Web search by first simplifying how it is done and then making sales of related advertising more efficient, Google Inc. is now funding green technology and using its brand power to lobby for policy change.

Google launched a plan to wean the US off burning coal and oil for power by 2030, and cut oil use for cars by 40 per cent. That will cost trillions of dollars, but Google believes it should ultimately save money.

Chief executive officer Eric Schmidt said the annual cost of the energy plan would anyway be less than the €501 billion being considered to bail out the financial industry, and he saw some parallels between the energy challenge and the credit crisis.