Google: renewables "simply won't work"

Via The Register we learn that some of Google's top engineers have been tasked with making renewable energy cheaper than fossil fuels. We also learn that they have given up.

At the start...we had shared the attitude of many stalwart environmentalists: We felt that with steady improvements to today’s renewable energy technologies, our society could stave off catastrophic climate change. We now know that to be a false hope ...

Renewable energy technologies simply won’t work; we need a fundamentally different approach.

There's lots of kowtowing to Gaia in the article ("scientists have definitively shown that the buildup of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere poses a looming danger"), but on renewables they seem to have done their homework.

(H/T El Reg)

Comments

[not banned yet]

I wonder if Google's conclusions will be included in any future prospectuses? I also wonder about the wording on future decommissioning liability issues:

3 November 2014 Last updated at 16:12

Wind farm shares to be sold to locals under new scheme
By Roger Harrabin
BBC environment analyst

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-29879140