The big news today is that more Silicon Valley money is moving into clean energy technology. Google has announced a widespread initiative that, among other things, aims to make renewable energy cheaper than coal.

As a result Google will be investing in wind, solar and plug-in hybrid technology. Here’s a quote from Google’s press release about the plan.

“Lots of groups are doing great work trying to produce inexpensive renewable energy. We want to add something that moves these efforts toward even cheaper technologies a bit more quickly. Usual investment criteria may not deliver the super low-cost, clean, renewable energy soon enough to avoid the worst effects of climate change,” said Dr. Larry Brilliant, Executive Director of Google.org, Google’s philanthropic arm, “Google.org’s hope is that by funding research on promising technologies, investing in promising new companies, and doing a lot of R&D ourselves, we may help spark a green electricity revolution that will deliver breakthrough technologies priced lower than coal.”

This is obviously an exciting development. There’s still a long way to go from here. But it should now be obvious to everyone that clean energy and the technology surrounding it will be the catalysts for the next great wave of innovation coming out of the United States.