Chevron to launch clean energy online game

Oil company Chevron is taking a new approach to promoting clean energy (and good old fossil-fuelled ones too): an online interactive game in the spirit of SimCity (pictured here).

Made in conjunction with the Economist Group, it’s all aimed at educating people about the tough choices that governments have to make when figuring out how to choose the optimum mix of alternative energies, and nice cheap ones like coal.

Earth2Tech was lucky enough to get a sneak preview, as below:

“Welcome to Energyville” reads the game’s intro. The year is 2007, and it’s up to the player to allocate funds to energy-generation plants, ranging from traditional coal to biomass, solar, and wind. The goal? Build an energy economy that keeps the city powered through 2030, without destroying the environment — or the municipal budget. The game tries to highlight the complexities of being “prosperous and secure” while also “living in a clean environment.”

Update: Chevron isn’t the only one trying this out, it seems. New Zealand’s Genesis Energy has launched something similar too, aimed at educating kids:

Kids start every game out with a small city consisting of 10,000 inhabitants and a wind farm that provides all of the electricity they need. But it’s both flexible and realistic, allowing parents and teachers to adapt it to various scenarios…