Google are far more than the most popular search engine on the planet, they have evolved into a giant corporation who are very supportive of clean energy projects. Although less than 15 years old Google has grown into a business with 20,000 employees and annual profits announced at some US $6.8 billion in 2009. Google have long championed eco-concerns and clean energy alternatives and this weeks announcement is welcome news for a company with the power to assist in renewable energy. Google have made their first direct investment into the utility market by committing US $38.8 million towards two wind farm projects in North Dakota. The company made a formal announcement this week via their company blog that two farms constructed by NextEra Energy Resources were being supported by Google and that the resultant benefits could see 170MW of wind energy capacity.

These farms will use the very newest technology for wind turbines with remote output monitoring enabling the efficiency of each turbine to be reviewed at all times at thus change the blade angles as and when needed to provide greater efficiencies. The huge wind machines will also be up to 20% larger than most of those currently in circulation (terrible pun – not intended).

Google’s green business operations manager expressed that the company have made some strategic changes after previously funding some renewable energy start ups that were launched with some fanfare.

“We’ve been dedicating resources to developing new technologies, including making investments in early-stage renewable energy companies such as eSolar and AltaRock. Smart capital includes not only these early-stage company investments, but also dedicated funding for utility-scale projects. To tackle this need, we’ve been looking at investments in renewable energy projects, like the one we just signed, that can accelerate the deployment of the latest clean energy technology while providing attractive returns to Google and more capital for developers to build additional projects.”

NextEra are currently the largest US wind power generator with 7.5GW advised that the sale of US $19 0million worth of Class B membership interests across the two wind farms, about 20% of the shares are taken up by Google’s investment in the project. It makes sense that Google invest within large scale energy projects with a renewable profile. The immense data centres employed by Google are amongst the biggest consumers of electricity globally and the company don’t shirk from the fact that their are tangible benefits to them by assisting in the growth of renewable energy. Google’s non profit division (Google.org) hosts a ‘Renewable Energy Cheaper  than Coal’ initiative which has committed to invest significant sums to aid research and implementation for projects that provide renewable energy production below the cost of fossil fuels. Experience via this arm of Google has led to investment in solar and wind energy sources.

Speculation remains that Google will ultimately play a significant role in the energy market even perhaps as a supplier of green energy. With Google you wouldn’t bet against it.

Tags: alta rock, clean energy, esolar, Fossil Fuels, google.com, google.org, green economy, green investment, nextera energy, planet forward, renewable energy, wind energy, wind farms