Google.org, the philanthropic arm of Google, has announced its $10m investment in what it calls ‘the killer app of energy,’ developing geothermal technology that seeks to tap vast amounts of energy trapped in deep, underground hot rocks. The search-engine giant announced the investment as part of its drive to bring about renewable energy that is cheaper than coal, focusing on three main technologies: solar thermal power, which uses the sun’s heat to generate electricity; advanced wind technology; and, now, a way of tapping geothermal energy called enhanced geothermal systems, or EGS.
