SUSTAINABLE WORLDVIEW
such programs in place.”
A Better Algorithm: É<RE<C
Readers propose a variety of ways by which Google might stimulate
rapid change on the energy-efficiency front.
By Michael Totten
A
number of readers emailed about the
last column (RE<C: Google Searches
the Future, March/April 2008, p. 20),
outlining Google’s plans to make renewable
energy cheaper than coal. All the e-mails
were extraordinarily positive about Google’s
green leadership, expressing utter amaze-
ment at the passion and commitment for
renewable energy shown by Google’s two
founders, Sergey Brin and Larry Page. A few
e-mails expressed some interesting insights.
Let me share a few remarks offered as pro
bono advice to the renewable tyros at Google.
C.G., Iowa: “Let’s get real, Google
founders. Your algorithm, RE<C, is woeful-
ly incomplete, leaving out the largest pool
of lowest-cost and least-risky energy service
options: efficiency. As detailed in the Amer-
ican Solar Energy Society’s 2007 report,
Tackling Climate Change in the U.S., renew-
able energy can economically satisfy Amer-
ica’s energy needs for this century while
achieving the deep CO2 reduction targets
climate scientists are urging. But it is effi-
ciency that provides half the total energy
26 Copyright © 2008 by the American Solar Energy Society Inc. All rights reserved.
urging policy and regulatory changes to get
E.B.,Virginia: “It’s well known that Google
develops generic web applications for any-
one in the public to build upon, and shuns in-
house development of special apps for outside
groups. Yet, NGOs across the nation could be
using Google Earth mashups [a combination
of data from different sources] to inform local
citizens on the nuts and bolts of rapidly green-
ing their cities with value-adding, minimal-
emissions, money-saving, green job-generat-
ing, zero-energy building designs and solarized
services, the report neighborhoods — if only they had modest
concludes, while citi- financial resources and sufficient web techni-
zens accrue more than cal expertise. Google.org should be spawning
$100 billion in net community collaboration across the nation
savings. Google needs through NGO seed grants for web greening-
an eta-better algo- city energy-generation mashups.”
rithm: É <RE<C [Effi-
ciency is cheaper than R.E., Texas: “I bet the majority of
renewable energy, Google’s Internet R&D and commercial ini-
which is cheaper than tiatives are focused on the next several years.
Michael Totten coal]. Google should So, why don’t they apply this same busi-
support web tools that ness logic and strategy to their RE<C project?
enable any citizen to access their building They speak of harnessing wind power from
by zip code. Let them play with plug-in the jet stream. Whether or not it turns out
estimators that show how a combination of to be a nut-dream or endless money stream,
efficiency upgrades (including onsite solar) by the time they find out there will have
can move the building towards the lofty been many hundreds of billions of dollars
but feasible goal of zero-net emissions. Then already locked into needless new transmis-
let them see how these changes can be sion lines arranged for moving the output
implemented, leaving them cash-positive from a rash of noxious coal plants with poi-
through innovative financing arrangements sonous emissions. These transmission lines
(like the Solar Santa Monica long-term are [not] sited … for electricity distribution
financing package). And if financing isn’t from the immense wind resources of the
available in their community, then let a High Plains and Great Plains, and the vast
plug-in facilitate sending an immediate solar resources of the Southwest. Google
email to their elected and appointed officials Earth maps with plug-in calculators and 4D
web visualization tools can play pivotal roles
in showing farmers, ranchers, regulators,
investors, developers and citizen stakehold-
ers where these more important transmis-
sion corridors should be preferentially sited.
There are a number of national and region-
al stakeholder consortia working on this,
ensuring that the sites are strategically locat-
ed so as to also protect the nation’s ecolog-
ical treasures and heritage landscapes. Come
down from the sky, Googlers: Terrestrial
wind generation is competitive today, and
needs more transmission access now!”
T.M., Maine: “It’s not surprising that
KARL WIRSING/RAILS-TO-TRAILS CONSERVANCY
Google’s tech wizards have fixated on high-
tech energy solutions. But don’t they know
that even their own billions-of-dollar fortunes
Google Maps can be a valuable tool in plan-
ning and promoting bike trail systems.
Shown here, the popular Minuteman com-
muter route in Boston, named on May 30 to
the Rails-to-Trails Hall of Fame.
solartoday.org SOLAR TODAY
 Efficiency is cheaper than renewable energy,
which is cheaper than coal.

were enabled by half a century of govern-
ment support, mostly through the defense
department, to accelerate computer and
Internet technologies? Our dirty energy mar-
ket is due to a legacy of entrenched govern-
ment rules, regulations, policies and lavish
subsidies all designed for last century’s indus-
trial revolution. Transforming to a green
energy market must include superseding
these ingrained legacies with new rules, regs
and incentives that unleash the market for
climate-friendly green electrons. Google’s
web tools, and more pointedly, Google grant
support for citizen advocacy groups, can play
instrumental roles in accelerating adoption
of two of the most critically important state
utility regulatory changes. First is decoupling
utility revenues from profits, and aligning
their financial interests with customers’ by
rewarding them for capturing lower cost,
on-site efficiency gains. California led this
sine qua non market-based innovation more
than two decades ago. Utilities were reward-
ed for reducing customers’ energy bills
through delivery of energy services by means
of a myriad of efficiency improvements.
Even though utility sales declined, the util-
ity earnings increased. And even though rates
increased to recoup utilities’ lost earnings,
energy bills declined. Second is implement-
ing state and regional carbon cap-and-auc-
tions with “customer-facing” allocations, like
those California, Oregon and the New Eng-
land states are adopting. Federal legislation
is moving in just the opposite direction with
“polluter-facing” allocations. Customer-fac-
ing focuses first and foremost on efficiency
savings that reduce energy bills and emis-
sions, while polluter-facing [constitutes] a
massive windfall to coal polluters and 20 to
50 percent customer rate hikes. This is a web
map mash-up tool of immense importance
and value awaiting support by a company
like Google.”
K.H., California: “What’s wrong with
those Googlers? They should be spawning
use of Web 2.0 tools for networking citizens
to collaborate in visualizing and calculating
greening of the economy. I’m passionately
for PHEVs and connecting vehicles to the
grid — Go, Google! — but hey, Google can
also support the even cheaper, faster, clean-
er and safer mobility option: Complete-the-
Streets (completestreets.org) and Rails-to-
Trails (railtrails.org). Safe pathways for biking
and walking are why Scandinavian citizens
travel half their annual miles via bicycle. A
bike gets 2,000 miles per gallon equivalent;
and the average trip for 80 percent of Amer-
icans is a few miles at a time. Polls find that
half of Americans would walk and bike to
work if safe bikeways were conveniently inte-
grated with transit-accessible routes.”
Purposely or not, Google has triggered
high expectations among its admirers. A
recent assessment ranked Google first with a
global brand value of more than $66 billion,
nearly double its value in the 2006 ranking.
If the maniacal coders at Google respond to
these suggestions, Google is positioned to
help citizens tackle climate change the smart
way: É<RE<C. ●
Michael Totten is chief advisor on climate,
water and ecosystem services at Conservation
International. Contact him at m.totten@
conservation.org.

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July/August 2008 Copyright © 2008 by the American Solar Energy Society Inc. All rights reserved. 27