Memo: Google board member John Doerr is a lifelong supporter of Al Gore. Vinod Khosla is a manager of a greentech fund. Expect major tax breaks. Oops. Did I say taxbreaks?

The Nanosolar company was founded in 2002 and is working to build the world’s largest solar cell factory in California and the world’s largest panel-assembly factory in Germany. They have successfully created a solar coating that is the most cost-efficient solar energy source ever. Their PowerSheet cells contrast the current solar technology systems by reducing the cost of production from $3 a watt to a mere 30 cents per watt. This makes, for the first time in history, solar power cheaper than burning coal.
See: http://www.celsias.com/2007/11/23/nanosolars-breakthrough-technology-solar-now-cheaper-than-coal/

Now we’re seeing a second wave in which new technologies finally have the potential to challenge fossil fuels. That’s what this initiative is all about. We can count on Google.org Google.com being smart about how each of them fits together in this new program.

Of course, Google isn’t the only player in this area: corporate and venture capital investment in CleanTech is expanding at a breakneck pace. Just as we think there’s nothing better for plug-in cars than helping to encourage the start of the Great Automotive Race of the 21st Century, we’re hoping that Google’s new program will not only succeed on its own but will catalyze new waves of innovation globally.

– Felix Kramer, Founder, CalCars.org

Google’s RechargeIT was a great first step (including supporting CalCars)! Now both Google.com and Google.org take the next step — and it’s potentially of far greater significance. If we take as a given that we will increasingly electrify not only vehicles but everything that directly uses fossil fuels, at the same time as we improve efficiency throughout the global economy, the arrow points to cleaning the grid as the necessary corollary.

“Renewable Energy Cheaper Than Coal” is the ultimate challenge. NYTimes columnist Tom Friedman and others have said that renewable energy won’t succeed until it meets the “China price” — that is, until it’s cost-competitive with coal in China (and also in India and globally). Once this happens, it’s no longer a question of moral appeals to “do the right thing,” but instead to do what pays.

Getting to the point where renewable energy can win in the marketplace involves both business and political strategies. We know there’s no level playing field in the marketplace. Over a century, the priorities, resources, incentives, loan guarantees, infrastructure support and straight-out subsidies have gone overwhelmingly to “big carbon” — oil, natural gas and coal (along with massive support and insurance programs to fund nuclear power). The process of changing those priorities (and the research, development and demonstration programs of the Department of Energy (DOE) that follow them), continues in fits and starts.

Now we’re seeing a second wave in which new technologies finally have the potential to challenge fossil fuels. That’s what this RE