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SOFTWARE INDUSTRY NEWS |
Google makes first direct investment in green energy |
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Mountain View based Internet giant Google has made its first first direct investment into green energy by putting its own money into a utility-scale renewable energy project. In its blogpost, Google said it has invested in two wind farms that generate 169.5 megawatts of power, enough to power more than 55,000 homes, that are developed by NextEra Energy Resources. Google said wind turbines in these two farms harness power from “one of the world’s richest wind resources” in the North Dakota plains and use existing transmission capacity to deliver clean energy to the region, reducing the use of fossil fuels. “Through this $38.8 million investment, we’re aiming to accelerate the deployment of renewable energy — in a way that makes good business sense, too,” Rick Needham, Green Business Operations Manager wrote on the Google Official Blog.  Three things, in Google's view, are needed to reach a clean energy future: effective policy, innovative technology and smart capital. Through its philanthropic arm Google.org, the Internet company has been pushing for energy policies that “strengthen the innovation pipeline, and we’ve been dedicating resources to developing new technologies” Google has earlier made investments in early-stage renewable energy companies such as eSolar and AltaRock, and has now moved its “smart capital” investment to fund its first utility-scale projects. It may be recalled that in the latter part of February, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) had allowed Google to buy and sell bulk power like a utility company, even though the regulator has said that it would not "own or control any generation or transmission" facilities (See: Google – The Power Company?). The FERC's order allowed Google Energy, a subsidiary of Google, market-based rate authorization, which prepares the groundwork for the company to be more in control of its energy costs. It did acknowledge that neither the company nor its affiliates own or control any power generation or transmission facilities, even though it would now have the the rights "for the sale of energy, capacity, and ancillary services at market-based rates." Google said that it was excited about this first project investment as it uses some of the latest wind turbine technology and control systems to provide one of the lowest-cost sources of renewable energy to the local grid. The turbines can continuously adjust the individual blade pitch angles to achieve optimal efficiency and use larger blades with 15 percent more swept area than earlier generations, allowing capture of even more wind energy for each turbine. The control systems for these wind farms, Google said, are also advanced and dynamic, allowing for remote 24/7 monitoring and operation to ensure maximum turbine up-time and power production. |
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