Google’s diversification strategy is on full course and now the internet search giant, who has previously expanded into telecommunication, maps and browsers, the ocean and the stars, has invested $39m (£25.6m) in two North Dakota wind farms.
This is Googles frist direct investment into a large scale green project. The windfarms are to genererate electricity for 55,000 homes.
The move is a shift in strategy for Google, which previously sought to invest in renewable energy via start-ups.
Rick Needham, Google’s green business operations manager, said: “To reach a clean energy future, we need three things: effective policy, innovative technology and smart capital. Through our philanthropic arm Google.org, we’ve been pushing for energy policies that strengthen the innovation pipeline, and we’ve been dedicating resources to developing new technologies, including making investments in early-stage renewable energy companies such as eSolar and AltaRock.”
He said bigger projects such as the windfarms will help “accelerate the deployment of the latest clean energy technology while providing attractive returns to Google and more capital for developers to build additional projects”.
Google is one of the world’s largest users of electricity via its data centres, which house millions of servers.
Earlier this year Google began trials of its own high speed fibre broadband network in the US.
Maybe this important move by Google will give Wind Power critics more to think about.
