Alphabet parts ways with geothermal start-up Dandelion due to lack of interest in drilling technologies

Geothermal energy startup Dandelion has left **Alphabet Inc's** moonshot accelerator X to become an independent company, Dandelion CEO Kathy Hannun said in a blog post on Thursday. Alphabet’s X project confirmed the spin-off when contacted by Reuters and said Dandelion has successfully secured an initial $2 million round of seed funding to fast-track the expansion of their operations in northeastern United States. X, a semi-secret research-and-development facility founded by Google, back in January 2010 as ‘ **Google X** ’, operates as a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc. Work at X is overseen by entrepreneur scientist  **Astro Teller** , as CEO, also known as “Captain of Moonshots”. The lab started with the development of Google’s self-driving car, Waymo. The program that Dandelion left is one such developmental program initiated by X with the goal of generating an affordable method to heat and cool homes using geothermal energy, which generates energy from the ground. Dandelion CEO Kathy Hannun said in a blog post, “We’re grateful for our time at X and Alphabet, where we drew on X’s prototyping techniques and labs to develop our drilling technology faster than we ever expected.” Hannun mentioned to Recode that the reason for the split is due to Alphabet’s lack of “core focus” in the field of drilling technology. Dandelion will offer geothermal heating and cooling systems to homeowners, starting in the northeastern United States, according to the blog post. With inputs from Reuters