Google starts geo-thermal drillingAdvanced searchBy Nick Farrell: Wednesday, 20 August 2008, 8:02 AMClick here to find out more!SEARCH OUTFIT GOOGLE has decided that boring into the World Wide Wibble is not enough and it plans to start drilling into the earth's crust.In a press release, Google promised nearly $11 million in technology to expand the nation’s geothermal energy reserves. A figure it points out is more than the US government, which is more interested in helping the oil industry, is stumping up.The technology Google is interested in is called Enhanced Geothermal Systems, or EGS. This involves drilling deep underground to fracture “hot rocks” and then pump them with water to create steam that can be used in a power plant.Google did a search and found that the accessible heat below the US has more than 2,500 times the nation’s annual energy consumption.Google.org is the charity arm of the search engine outfit. One of the beneficiaries is Potter Drilling which is developing hard-rock drilling technology to be used for geothermal. It scored $4 million from Google.org.Google has also invested in solar power plant companies BrightSource Energy and eSolar as well as in high-altitude wind company Makani.
