Google Throws Extra £64m Into Wind Energy Project

Google continues its heavy investment into renewable energy with the news that it has increased its  investment in the Alta Wind Energy Center by $102 million (£64m), bringing its total funding for the project to $157 million (£98m).

Google’s clean power investments now top an impressive $780 million (£488m), with $700 million (£438m) of that funding coming in 2011 alone. That is easily the most plunked down in the sector by any high-tech company.

The search engine in May put $55 million (£34m) into AWEC’s 101-megawatt Alta IV project. The new investment will finance the 168MW Alta V project. AWEC lies in Tehachapi, California, in the vast Mojave Desert.

Home Power

Citibank is matching Google’s $102 million investment in Alta V, just as it shadowed Google’s $55 million infusion in Alta IV.

When AWEC is complete, it should create 1,550MW of energy, or enough to juice 450,000 homes.

“We are particularly excited about AWEC because it will be one of the largest wind energy centres in the world, with over 1GW [1 gigawatt] of production scheduled to be online by the end of the year and 1,550MW when fully completed,” said Rick Needham, Google’s director of green business operations.

Energy produced at AWEC will be sold to Southern California Edison under a power purchase agreement signed with developer Terra-Gen Power. Neither Google nor Citi will purchase any of the energy produced at Alta V.

Google and Citibank will own Alta V and lease it back to Terra-Gen, which will manage and operate both projects.

Energy Investments

Google, a massive consumer of energy to power the thousands of computers that fuel its search and Web services, is a big believer in the clean energy movement.

Google 14 June invested $280 million (£175m) in a project to power more homes with solar energy; this is Google’s biggest, single clean-power capital infusion to date.

The company gained the right to buy and sell power on regulated wholesale markets from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in February 2010, buying 100.8 megawatts of wind energy to power its new data centre in Oklahoma in April.

Google this year also invested $100 million (£61m) in the Shepherds Flat Wind Farm, and put up $168 million (£102m) for a solar energy power plant BrightSource Energy is building in California’s Mojave Desert.

GigaOm has a more detailed list of Google’s power spending.