Click to view Makani Power, the company founded in part by Larry Page and Sergey Brin's kitesurfing buddy Don Montague, has scored another $5 million in investment from Google as part of a second round that could net as much as $20 million. That's on top of the $10 million already invested in the startup's plan to create electricity from high-altitude air currents. This money, like the first round, presumably comes from Google.org's project to tap into renewable energy that's cheaper than coal. I may have to revise my opinion of Google.org as just another corporate venture fund and green PR ploy.Considering how CEO Eric Schmidt funnels money to his real estate-developer wife Wendy Schmidt through charitable organizations and cofounder Sergey Brin's wife Anne Wojcicki cashed in on Google's money for her vanity gene-sequencing startup 23andMe, Google.org seems more like another vehicle for the Mountain View advertising firm's executives to lavish money on friends and family.

How did wind energy startup Makani Power garner $10 million in investment from Google and space at the NASA-run Ames research center on Moffett Field? Through at least one convenient marriage and a shared passion for kite surfing, a tipster points out: