Internet giant Google has announced it is to spend millions of dollars on a new initiative to develop electricity from renewable sources that will be cheaper than power produced from coal.Known as RE
In order to make progress in this field, the search engine provider is set to hire engineers and energy experts to lead its research and development work.
Commenting on the plan, Larry Page, Google co-founder and president of products, stated: "With talented technologists, great partners and significant investments, we hope to rapidly push forward.
"Our goal is to produce one gigawatt of renewable energy capacity that is cheaper than coal."
Google is confident that this technological feat can be achieved in years rather than decades, he added.
According to the company, coal is the primary power source for much of the world - supplying 40 per cent of its electricity - and the greenhouse gases it produces are a significant environmental challenge.
Sergey Brin, Google co-founder and president of technology, strategic investments and grants, stated that, as well as its environmental necessity, developing cheap renewable energy is vital for the economic development of places where there is "limited affordable energy of any kind".
He added that Google hopes, through its RE
In another recent bid to bolster its environmental credentials, the firm launched a Google Carbon Calculator, which enables people to calculate their contributions to CO2 emissions and discover ways of reducing them.
