Google’s new CEO Larry Page announced the formation of a three-person renewable energy team at the company’s 2011 annual stockholder’s meeting last week.

Page said the company is hiring three technical positions for a new R&D group “to develop electricity from renewable energy sources at a cost less than coal” at “utility scale.” Google has also applied for a patent application for a heliostat control system to control a mirror system for concentrating solar radiation.

However, Page told investors that he’s not going to “bet the farm” on Google’s “latest crazy thing,” and that he stays committed to its “core businesses of search and advertising.”

The three-person team will have a high hurdle rate-of-return requirement to reduce risk, said Page.