The energy from the heat beneath the earth's surface is essentially an unlimited resource. What if it could be developed to help solve our energy challenges and fight global warming? Enhanced Geothermal Systems, or EGS, attempts to do just that. EGS produces heat and electricity by harnessing the energy from hot rock deep below the earth's surface, expanding the potential of traditional geothermal energy by orders of magnitude. EGS is a big challenge, but with the potential to power the world many times over, it demands our immediate attention. At Google we've launched an effort to advance EGS through R&D, investment, policy and information.

History is replete with inventors who have discovered and produced amazing clean energy devices. Men like Nikola Tesla, T. Townsend Brown, Stan Meyer and others have shown us it is possible to have all the power we need without burning noxious oil, coal, and gas or risking nuclear damage. For 100 years, however, there have been no significant changes in the way we generate power.

Solar energy is becoming more economically attractive as technologies improve and the cost of electricity generated by fossil fuels rises.

Researchers have found a cheap and easy way to store the energy made by solar power.

Imagine pulling into any old parking spot downtown, plugging your electric car into a box on the curb, running some errands, and coming back ten minutes later to find your car completely charged and your bank account automatically debited for the balance of your electricity use without you having to swipe any cards.

The Pickens Plan is a bridge to the future — a blueprint to reduce foreign oil dependence by harnessing domestic energy alternatives, and buy us time to develop even greater new technologies.

ONE OF THE BIGGEST DRAWBACKS INVESTORS and utilities have found with solar and wind power is that they are “variable.” Simply put: they can’t generate electricity when the sun’s not shining or the wind isn’t blowing. That’s problematic because we’ve grown accustomed to getting energy whenever we want it. Flick a switch and the lights should go on, regardless of whether it’s sunny or windy outside.

Former Vice President Al Gore gave a speech in Washington laying out his new approach to the entwined challenges of limiting risks from global warming and instability from rising energy prices and declining supplies of fossil fuels. He calls for the United States to produce all electricity from “carbon-free sources” by 2018.

"The way to bring gas prices down is to end our dependence on oil and use the renewable sources that can give us the equivalent of $1 a gallon gasoline," the former vice president and Nobel laureate said. Read Gore's full speech

Toyota’s next generation Prius, due out as early as next spring, will be outfitted with solar panels to help run the on-board electronics, according to a report from the Nikkei newspaper.