Comments on: Is Google Betting on a Carbon Tax?

By: Jeff Rusch

Jeff Rusch — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 21:23:29 +0000

What I meant to say in summary is we’re not lacking in cost-competitive alternative technologies, but in speed of implementation, and that’s where a carbon tax would really help.

By: Jeff Rusch

Jeff Rusch — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 21:19:51 +0000

Google’s optimism is not unfounded, carbon tax or not. Since as you say you’re not up to speed on solar thermal, here are five solar companies that have new but real technologies that are cost competitive with coal or gas right now, with wholesale prices at or expected to be around $1 a watt. All are either already manufacturing or expect to be within a year. (Two were funded by Google.) They will all probably take a couple of years to ramp up production to gigawatt scale, but they need no technical breakthroughs to do it.

low cost solar thermal:
eSolar http://www.esolar.com/
Ausra http://www.ausra.com/
Coolearth solar http://www.coolearthsolar.com/

low-cost thin-film (no silicon):
Nanosolar http://www.nanosolar.com/
AVA solar http://www.avasolar.com/

There are more out there, but these are my favorites. Happy reading, and let’s all continue to push for a carbon tax to speed them along, so that rather than being merely competitive with coal, they can trounce it in the marketplace, and get this happening as fast as possible.

By: StevenChen18

StevenChen18 — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 15:18:40 +0000

www.treehugger.com is a place where many green people gather. Those are good people. I think they are very important part of the green movement. However, I have found that many of them are overly optimistic. One of them said; "In my perspective, the ‘green movement’ is already on the winning side, and it is unstoppable." With this in mind, they are not willing to support dramatic measures such as Carbon Tax or Cap-and-trade. They are innocently believe that the technology along would be enough to defeat the fossil fuel industry. The recent Google news is their evidence that "we are winning".

Please check out my post in TreeHugger and offer your point of view. Here is the link;

http://forums.treehugger.com/viewtopic.php?t=1960

To me, green is not a hobby. It is a life and death battle for future generations.

By: socialscientist

socialscientist — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 19:49:22 +0000

Don’t count on Google to do anything except maximize profit.
The absence of a carbon tax is a subsidy for carbon polluters. We should more often promote it that way. People are against subsidizing profits.
Meanwhile let’s stop subsidizing autosprawl.
http://www.freepublictransit.org

By: Mark

Mark — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 22:25:24 +0000

Just a note to the author: Solar thermal is not PV. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_thermal_energy

By: Ronald

Ronald — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 19:10:51 +0000

From what I remember reading the price of coal is not a lot different than the price of dirt.
What google is doing is not alot different than what the publisher of penthouse was trying to do 30 years ago. He was funding the research into Fusion power and spent a bunch of millions into it until he figured, what am I doing, I got no expertise in this stuff, if highly technical companies are not investing in this, I got to be nuts. He did back out.

By: David Collins

David Collins — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 18:37:03 +0000

"The Price Is Right" is OK for entertainment, but as things are, The Price Is Wrong for Carbon. Until the tube of that flat tire is fixed, climate aid ain’t going nowhere. Great engineers might increase the number of alternatives for alternative sources of energy, but that won’t reduce energy consumption, which in our part of the world will assuredly cure more ills than any snake oil could ever lay claim to. Yeah, for sure, Capt. Trade can raise the price, but only the Carbon Tax can make sure "The Price Is Right" for Carbon so that everybody goes home a winner.

By: Daniel Rosenblum

Daniel Rosenblum — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 06:01:30 +0000

Google may be betting on Congress putting a price on carbon, but there is no reason to believe it is betting on a carbon tax. Cap-and-trade, for all its problems as we detail on our website, would also put a price on carbon and would also help the economics of renewable power. I certainly hope that Google recognizes that a carbon tax is preferable to cap-and-trade, but if it just wants to put a price on carbon it can also support Lieberman-Warner or one of the other cap-and-trade bills.