Keith Watanabe * NET 2.0

google is going after the sun. for power. well, not initially to increase their coffers, but rather switch their headquarters to solar technology through a company i've often monitored since day one: Energy Innovations, an Idealab company. these guys used to be around my corner and it was interesting checking out the little hardware experiments going on. now, 5 years later i can see them making the next big step in joining hands with google. it's funny yet believable seeing these two together. my guess is that someone knew Bill Gross or that he knew someone in google. you'd think that with all the other options out there that google could've had a number of choices. one guess is that technologists are protecting other technologists. political inbreeding aside, the outcome is interesting. first, this is the only widely publicized purchase that i've ever heard for Energy Innovations. it's going to legitimize their business. hopefully, it'll let them expand into other markets and grow into a viable business without depending on pure venture funding. the idea of solar power is a natural pairing in California as the weather is great and energy dependency is high. if we can avoid energy brokers like Enron and outside, outsourced groups by moving to solar power, the state would be in good shape to save money and place it into other, more useful areas. we wouldn't have to worry about the incompetencies, for instance, of DWP like in their fuck up that took out LA in 2005. if more large companies that have high energy bills like technology companies could make the initial payments for these systems, over time the cost of producing these systems would go down along with decreasing the size and increasing the capacity. later, the average home could even implement them, almost like buying another refrigerator for the home. in the long term, this would be one less bill to have to worry about. have this go in conjunction with hybrid technology for cars, and you've basically moved people's dependence on older forms of energy and fuel away and allow the earth to conserve more. huge win for all (except greedy oil bastards).