While recession looms and oil prices drop drastically advertising and search giant Google ventures into uncharted waters. Google has lost most than half their value last year and the investors are irked. But that has not deterred the search giant from investing $45 million in wind, solar and geothermal-energy startups.

Google has been lobbying energy issues in Washington and is gung-ho about entering the energy sector. Google.org (the philanthropic arm) has been increasingly looking at the energy sector and have invested millions to make their data-centers energy efficient.

In fact Google is collaborating with GE to create novel technologies and tools that better the electricity grid. It has hired engineers Google is looking at generating energy from renewable sources and raising the bar for competitors.

Well it surely sounds like an uncalculated move for Google yet there are no speed breakers for the maverick organisation that is renowned to set industry benchmarks.