Google Invests $280 Million in Solar Panels for Homes Company

Google loves green technology, not that it's alone in saying this, but Google also loves with its pocket, yet again it's shelling out hundreds of millions for a green energy company. Google has agreed to invest $280 million in SolarCity, a company which offers a way for home owners to install solar panels without the costly up-front price.

"Today, we’re announcing that we’ve investing $280 million to create a fund that will help SolarCity finance more solar installations across the country," Rick Needham, Director of Green Business Operations at Google, announced.

"This is our largest clean energy project investment to date and brings our total invested in the clean energy sector to more than $680 million. We’ve also launched a partnership to offer SolarCity services to Googlers at a discount," he added.

The premise of SolarCity is a simple one. Solar panels can offer a great way of powering a house with green energy, in certain geographical areas they could fulfill all of the energy needs of a regular household.

They're not cheap though, prices are coming down, but they still represent a big up-front investment from the owner with the promise of recouping the money after several years.

SolarCity fixes this problem by providing customers with the solar panels, installing them as well as offering maintenance, after which the customers can pay a fixed monthly rate.

For Google, it's a bit of a departure from its recent investments. So far it has focused on large scale projects and companies, investing in wind farms and solar energy projects.

The idea was that, by helping these projects get off the ground, it would also enable the company to buy green energy for its data centers, helping with its goal of being carbon neutral.

But Google also wants the green energy business as a whole to grow and it's investing in the most promising projects in the hopes that it will spur innovation and hopefully other companies to open their wallets as well.