Google.org is making a big move, offering $10 million worth of grants as part of its RechargeIT program to firms working on various forms of sustainable transportation, like hybrid vehicles, plug-in hybrids, and other kinds of fuel-reducing measures. Google will invest $500,000-$2 million in each company that is approved after filing a Request For Proposal, and will not sit on the boards of those companies.
Chris O’Brien read through the form 990 for 2006 filed by the Google Foundation, the charity arm of Google. He found a number of interesting things, including that the Google Foundation was started on $90 million endowment, is run by Dr. Larry Brilliant (who does not get a salary from the Foundation, but is paid by Google itself), and that the Foundation had revenue of $4.07 million and paid out $2.096 million.
So, it’s a slow start, which is alright, since they are trying to build a successful and world-changing charity organization (everybody wishes they could be as good at this as Bill Gates). The biggest recipient of Google’s generosity so far? The World Bank-sponsored Development Marketplace, whichfunds health. nutrition and population programs in developing countries.
(via Valleywag)
Google.org, the philanthropic arm of Google, is offering a $1 million in grants and the possibility of $10 million in funding to develop plug-in hybrid autos capable of 70-100 miles per gallon. Google hopes that its grant, as part of a just announced effort called RechargeIT, will inspire inventors towards the creation of much better hybrids than the current crop, which use gasoline significantly enough as to provide almost no savings to drivers, as well as providing a more significant savings for the environment.
Here’s a video about RechargeIT:
Google.org’s RechargeIT created a small demonstration of plug-in hybrids at the Googleplex, retrofitting 4 Toyota Pruises and 2 Ford Escapes, and plans on creating a total of 100 of these cars of these for use in their corporate fleet. The cars will plug into Google’s new 1.6 megawatt solar panel array, meaning the electricity they use won’t be contributing to the problem in a backwards way.
About Google’s solar array: It’s the largest on a corporate campus in the U.S., and one of the largest in the world. The info page has a Google Trends-like graph showing the amount of power generated, 10,014 kilowatt-hours in the last 24 hours and over 35,000 since being turned on Monday.
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