The reason this is important is that it's Google--these guys were/are true believers.
We can run our entire empire on unicorn farts, they said.
We can save the planet by eliminating the need for fossil fuels, they said.
And they had enough $$$$ to take a serious stab at it.
And the result of that stab?
It's impossible.
Short version: it would require a perpetual motion machine. Unfortunately the closest thing to that--thermonuclear fusion--is still not very close, unless you believe the Skunk Works. In the interim, I have one word for Google: Thorium. With the money they've flushed, they could already have built a full scale demonstrator
LFTR.
Of course, the Thermageddon Mongers have already decided Thorium not "green."
So that means it should more than cover global energy needs for a few centuries.
