14 DAY TRIAL // Google is becoming a major player in the green energy business. It is now investing in a large-scale backbone transmission project which would make it more economically viable to deploy offshore wind turbines on the US Mid-Atlantic coast.
"We just signed an agreement to invest in the development of a backbone transmission project off the Mid-Atlantic coast that offers a solid financial return while helping to accelerate offshore wind development," Rick Needham, Green Business Operations Director at Google, announced.
"When built out, the Atlantic Wind Connection (AWC) backbone will stretch 350 miles off the coast from New Jersey to Virginia and will be able to connect 6,000MW of offshore wind turbines," he said.
"That’s equivalent to 60% of the wind energy that was installed in the entire country last year and enough to serve approximately 1.9 million households," he explained.
Google is not investing in the offshore wind turbine itself. Instead, along with other companies, it is building a transmission backbone, off the coast, which will be able to relieve some of the strain on the already saturated transmission network in the region and also provide the infrastructure needed for off-shore turbines.
Other companies will then be able to build turbines cheaper and faster since they will be able to connect to the existing infrastructure rather than build transmission lines from each turbine to the shore.
The region, Google says is perfect for offshore wind turbines, which will be built 10-15 miles out to sea. These turbines are the only viable green energy source in the region at the moment.
What's more, the coast has the potential to produce 60,000 MW of power from wind turbines, though the Google-backed infrastructure will only be able to handle 10 percent of that. Google has a license to buy and sell electricity.
Google will providing 37.5 percent of the funds needed for the initial stage which will handle all approvals needed as well as raise funding for the actual construction. Good Energies and Marubeni Corporation are also investing and the project will be led by Trans-Elect.