Google has announced that it is investing $80m in six new solar plants in California and Arizona. It is expected that it will provide enough electricity to power 17,000 US homes and will be operational by early 2014.
Google is teaming up with KKR to invest in six new utility-scale solar facilities which will be its 14th investment in renewable energy. Google will make an approximately $80m investment into these solar facilities.
Google has previously partnered with KKR; it invested $94m in four solar facilities in 2011. The company has a good track record of using renewable energy sources and ensuring that it is environmentally friendly. In 2010 it invested $38.8m in two wind farms in North Dakota. Google has even installed a 1.7MW solar installation at its Mountain View campus near San Francisco which produces enough energy to power almost a third of the buildings underneath it. It is estimated that a third of the energy to power Google’s operations comes from renewable energy sources. The company has allegedly committed more than $1bn to renewable energy projects worldwide.
Google is heading in the right direction by putting environmental issues at the forefront of its investments. Let’s hope other influential companies follow suit.
