Today, GE and Google announced a partnership to improve the U.S. electricity infrastructure as well as its connection with future electric transportation. The companies released a fact sheet that provides an overview of the components of this partnership. Highlights include:
1. Policy partnership
GE and Google will advocate for federal policies to support improvements in the U.S. electricity system. Their Initial policy priorities include:
- Planning, siting, and cost allocation for the transmission capacity necessary to enable large scale deployment of renewable electricity generation in the United States
- Development and deployment of a "smart" electricity grid that will empower utilities and end users to manage electricity more efficiently and with lower emission
2. Collaboration on advanced energy technologies
GE and Google will work together to develop and deploy renewable energy and plug-in vehicle related technologies. Initial areas of collaboration include:
- Utility-scale renewable energy with an initial focus on advanced geothermal technology
- Software, controls, and services to enable utilities to integrate plug-in vehicles into the grid
Both GE and Google are involved in a number of clean energy initiatives (the links at the end of this post provide some examples). Also, in a separate announcement, Greenhouse Gas Services (GHGS) (a venture between GE Energy Financial Services and The AES Corporation) announced an agreement today with Google (see related post). In addition, the following video features a discussion at the recent Google Zeitgeist ’08 Americas conference between Dr. Eric Schmidt (CEO and Chair, Google) and Jeffery Immelt (CEO and Chair, GE).
- GE and Google Clean Energy Partnership: An Overview (PDF)
- Partnering with GE on Clean Energy (Official Google Blog, September 17, 2008)
- GE Ecomagination
- GE Energy Financial Services
- Google: Green Energy
- Google.org: Develop Renewable Energy Cheaper Than Coal (RE<C)
- Google.org: EGS
- Google.org: RechargeIT
- Green VC – Google coverage