This looks like an interesting project. They are helping finance research into geothermal energy. Most geothermal well can only go a few hundred feet deep due to drilling limitations. Google is aiming for the really hot zone several kilometers deep.
Estimates from MIT say that if the United States can tap into just 2 percent of the heat underneath us it could supply 2500 times our energy needs.
You would think the US would have some type of NASA agency that would be doing this type of research and then open sourcing it.
Its too bad Google isn’t running for office in 2008.