Finally a company is thinking about their impact on the world rather then just the bottom line. Microsoft could really use some of googles thinking, i think they get paid to sleep over there.

It is not only good for Googles image but also good for the enviroment. Perhaps other companies will also realize not only the good pr it can get from solar cells but also the energy savings they can have plus help the enviroment.

The great thing about both the solar cell and the grants is that they might even be able to do both, help the environment and the bottom line.

The solar cell by dropping long term electricity costs and both combined by giving Google free advertising like it is getting with this article.

those are the future.
I want a 4 seater (at least) with a battery radius of 60 miles or more @ 55-65 mph.

That car would make a lot of people get gas only for road trips.

The ZAP-X would be nice, too bad its only on paper.

A plug in hybrid would also have an eviornmental cost, as most electricity is domestically (in the US) produced with fossil fuels anyway.

If you do manage to find one, try and charge it at Google's solar powered campus :)

GM has already developed a hydrogen automobile chasis, it is possible to release them right now, but there are no recharging stations yet, however, in California, Da Govanor is installing them along major highways, making hydrogen very feasable in california

Check this out:
http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=37.422432,-122.084244&spn=0.000988,0.001824&t=k

Why are hybrids so hyped? so you can plug them into the mains supply, and not burn petrol. But where does the electricity come from? power stations, which also burn fossil fuels (in the majority of cases). never understood them, better off developing new tech (e.g. hydrogen as mentioned above) and making current techs more efficient.

back on topic....

This is good for google, google for nature. hope other companies jump on this particular band wagon....

The simplest answer is that a powerplant can process/generate electricity to power your car much more efficiently than a car can process the same amount of gasolene into power. It makes sense when you think about it -- relying on car engines to process a lot (most?) of the fuel used is horribly inefficient.
Hydrogen is a horrible idea -- electric cars are a much better solution to produce NOW instead of continuing to look ahead to Hydrogen cars which would not be ready for large-scale fleets for many years.

Furthermore, hybrid vehicles are much more efficient as they can charge up batteries/caps instead of breaking, and using that power to re accelerate the vehicle as the green light comes back on

This is cheery news. Hope other big organizations can follow this lead. Some communities in the third world that are in the dark can be powered this way and greatly trasformed.They dont need big expensive projects but focussed and compact projeccts.

The future is coreless, stop holding on old cords and plugs. The future vehicle is fuelcell vehicle and perhaps fuelcell/electric hybrid vehicle. Gas will be the past. Just watch the Discovery Channel.

The future is to produce the hydrogen using an 'on demand' porcess. It would use WATER as a source of fuel. In the car would be a device that separates the Hydrogen from the Water. Then used in the Fuel cell. Waste would be... you guessed it WATER!!!! Imagine, filling your car up from the garden hose! Talk about a natural resource for North Americans.... (Canadians more so)

Ha! Technology of this type has been tried. And the big Oil companies either buy the littles guys out or use there influence and legal teams to close the inventors down!!

Don't get me started on the use of HEMP instead of trees and cotton for paper and clothing!! And Hemp oil instead of Crude oil by products!

Meanwhile, the US population continues to mushroom especially in places like California, that has over the past 20 years seen a doubling of certain demographics..all these people consume, all these people demand access to resources and yet such massive population increases don't seem to matter. I guess horizons are infinite.

Fact: you will never fill your car up with the garden hose. Can you get hydrogen from water? Yes, we do it now through electrolysis. However, it TAKES ENERGY to do that, more than you could possibly get from the hydrogen gas you produced. If you hippies took a physics class in college instead of reading poetry around the water bong, maybe you'd know what the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics meant.

Go East a little bit, and Google has their own Air Base for Defense.... or Offense! ;)

Also... forget about Hybris cars!

AIR-CARs... look it up on youtube - Runs on compress air... get about 180miles on $2 on electrical power! And if you have solar-power... its free!