14 DAY TRIAL // Google is squeezing in another green energy investment, before the year is over. The company is pouring $94 million, €72 million in a number of solar panel projects. These are large scale projects that tap directly into the grid, a first of its kind investment for Google.
The company has made a few very large investments in green energy this year, but so far the company has mostly backed wind-farm projects.
"We’ve made a new $94 million investment in a portfolio of four solar photovoltaic (PV) projects being built by Recurrent Energy near Sacramento, California," Google announced.
"We’ve already committed to providing funding this year to help more than 10,000 homeowners install solar PV panels on their rooftops," it said.
"But this investment represents our first investment in the U.S. in larger scale solar PV power plants that generate energy for the grid—instead of on individual rooftops. These projects have a total capacity of 88 MW, equivalent to the electricity consumed by more than 13,000 homes," it explained.
Google is joined by the KKR investment firm which created the SunTap Energy fund to invest in solar energy projects. All of the energy from these four projects is contracted for the next 20 years by the Sacramento Municipal Utility District.
Google has invested $915 million, €703 million in green energy projects to date. This year alone it provided $880 million, €676 million in funding to wind farms, photovoltaic projects and even a heliostat solar energy project.
Some of Google's investments focused on projects which it used directly, by being able to buy cheap green energy for its data centers, but most of them don't involve Google as a company at all.
Google expects to earn money, in the long run, from each of its investments. It sees its role as a financier of viable green energy projects which will, in time, bring down the cost of green energy to a level that is competitive with 'dirty' energy production methods such as coal.