Filed under: Forecasts, Launches, Google (GOOG)

In another sign that Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) wants to be in businesses well beyond its key search operations, the company has announced another initiative. It is not a phone, or even bidding on wireless spectrum

Google is going into the renewable energy business. The company announced “a new strategic initiative to develop electricity from renewable energy sources that will be cheaper than electricity produced from coal.”

Weird? Or, cool? According to Google, in 2008, Google expects to spend tens of millions on research and development and related investments in renewable energy. As part of its capital planning process, the company also anticipates investing hundreds of millions of dollars in breakthrough renewable energy projects which generate positive returns.

Google does use a lot of electricity to run its server farms, but enough to justify the huge investment in technology that may not work? It’s probably a bad idea.

Part of the concern about the current Google share price is that, as the company evolves beyond its core skills, returns to shareholders could drop. Renewable energy falls into that category.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 27th, 2007 at 6:05 pm and is filed under Goog news. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.