Google, you’re wrong. According to a story in the Washington Post, Google’s green energy czar Bill Weihl told participants at the Reuters Global Climate and Alternative Energy Summit that “there is a lack of companies that have ideas that would be considered breakthroughs in the green technology sector.”

Representing the company he noted, "I would say it's reasonable to be a little bit discouraged there and from my point of view, it's not right to be seriously discouraged," he said. "There isn't enough investment going into the early stages of investment pipeline before the venture funds come into the play."

Weihl, apparently, also said the United States needs to raise government-backed research significantly, particularly in the very initial stages to encourage breakthrough ideas in the sector.

Google, through it’s philanthropic effort, google.org, announced plans in late 2007 to create renewable energy at a price lower than power from coal. But since then it has invested less than $50 million in other companies.

Weihl said Google had not intended to invest much more in early years, but that there was little to buy.

To say that there is a lack of companies that have ideas that would be considered breakthroughs and that there is little to buy is a tad short-sighted. Actually, there's an abundance of companies and individuals with ideas that could be breakthroughs. Many, with the the deft use of a search engine, can be found on the Web.

Google, try searching yourself.

Perhaps unlike Google’s green energy inbox, this editor’s inbox is chuck full of ideas, any of which could be breakthroughs:

--- Earthsure, of Woodbridge, New Jersey, wants to harness solar energy underground. Yes, under the grass, in the dirt. The company’s idea dubbed SubSolar( tm) for Subterranean Solar includes an optical device installed upon a rooftop or other sunlight-catching environment. This device would capture and magnify the sun's rays and transfer the sunlight from its linear or cylindrical lenses though fiber-optic lines leading down into an underground storage of solar panel modules. The subterranean solar panels would be buried 3 - 4 feet and be encased in cylindrical tubes or in sealed boxes

Why? Some find solar panels unsightly – hidden underground they’d never be seen. But the solar panels would also be protected from the elements, keeping them clean, and panels would stay naturally cool so they’d perform more efficiently.

--- EarthSure also wants to to capture the hot air being blown out of air conditioning units and put to work. The company’s Wind Air system idea would utilize the exhaust of warm air from a traditional air conditioning condensing unit spinning a secondary fan that would generate electricity. The electricity could be fed to the building or to the power grid.

--- Optiwind, of Torrington, Connecticut, is developing its Optiwind 150 (150 kilowatt ) Optiwind (300 kilowatt) wind turbines. The turbine design includes a structure that directs air - thus accelerating it to increase power output - into the turbine blades . Optiwind’s design consists of an array of six or twelve turbines mounted on a large cylinder that rotates so that the turbines always face prevailing winds. The design takes advantage of the fluid dynamic property that causes a fluid (air) to accelerate along the face of a cylinder. In the Optiwind system, this acceleration results in an eight fold increase in the recoverable wind energy, according to the company.

Optiwind has recently received $ 1 million in funding from Connecticut Innovations, the state’s quasi-public authority responsible for technology investing and innovation.

--- New Energy Technologies, of Burtonsville, Maryland, is actively capturing the wasted energy of moving vehicles. The company is now demonstrating its MotionPower (tm) concept. The company says MotionPower is ”designed as a roadway-based system for installation where vehicles are required to decelerate or stop.” The technology “assists vehicles in slowing down, and in the process of doing so, captures the slowing vehicles’ motion (kinetic) energy before it is lost as brake heat, and creatively converts that energy into clean, ‘green’ electricity.”

New Energy recently conducted durability testing at a quick-service Burger King in the New York metro area. Other locations are for testing are planned as well

--- New Energy also is developing its SolarWindow (tm) technology described as window glass coated with the world’s smallest known solar cells. These solar coatings are less than 1/10th the thickness of of thin film technology.

--- Isis Innovation Limited, wholly owned by the University of Oxford in the U.K., has developed a new kind of electric motor it calls “the Oxford Invention.” It’s ready for commercialization, according to the group. The Invention is described as a lightweight electric motor that offers increased efficiency for a variety of high torque to low weight applications including hybrid vehicles and renewable energy.

The motor features a segmented armature and the novel use of materials that have been designed and developed by the Electronic Power Group within the Engineering Department at the University of Oxford. The motor has significantly less iron and copper than typical motors. It’s highly efficient (up to 97 percent) and is powerful for its weight: a 50 kilowatt (67 hp) version weighs just 13 kilograms (29 lbs) and it has a peak torque of 130 Newton-meters (96 ft/lbs) (or 10 Nm/kg)

Simulations show the motor could achieve a whopping 150 kW (200 hp)

--- Green Ocean Energy, of Aberdeen, Scotland, is developing two innovative devices that will harness ocean swells: the Ocean Treader and Wave Treader. Both devices are designed to roll with the waves on the surface of the ocean while attached floating arms move up and down to power on-board generators. Electricity is sent back to shore via underwater cables. Each machine is designed to produce 500 KW of electricity — enough to power 125 homes — so a farm of 30 such devices would have a rating of 15 MW.

Ocean Treader is designed to float freely in an ocean energy farm. Wave Treader would be attached to the base of an offshore wind turbine to add power output while using the same undersea cable to send power ashore.

So that’s the listing of energy ideas accumulated in the inbox only in the last couple of weeks. A shortage of ideas? I don’t think so. Could any of these be breakthroughs? Who’s to decide?

by Bruce Mulliken, Green Energy News

Related Links:

Connecticut Innovations
http://www.ctinnovations.com

Isis Innovation Limited
http://www.isis-innovation.com/licensing/3056.html

Earthsure
http://www.earth-sure.com

Optiwind
http://www.optiwind.com

New Energy Technologies
http://www.newenergytechnologiesinc.com

Green Ocean Energy
http://www.greenoceanenergy.com