Google Ending the Year with Solar Energy Investment

Google has announced, via its Google Green Blog, that it has invested $94 million in Recurrent Energy, a Sacramento based company that makes photovoltaic panels. According to PC Magazine, the money will be invested in four separate projects, each geared towards reducing material costs in constructing arrays for large corporate customers. The move comes on the heels of an earlier announcement by Google that it had invested $280 million in home based solar maker SolarCity, with the purpose of reducing costs for average people that wish to upgrade their homes to make use of solar power.

Google says both investments are part of their clean energy projects whereby the company looks for investment opportunities that it believes will bear fruit in the form of actual products that move forth the use of alternative energy sources as an alternative to those based on non-renewable, pollutants, such as coal, the main source of energy used to produce electricity in the United States.

The company also says that it has thus far invested a total of $880 million in clean energy companies and says it will be investing even more next year. The goal they say, is to develop technologies such as wind and solar to make use of the clean sources of energy providers currently available.

Google says on its site that it expects the total capacity increase of 88MW from its investment in Recurrent, which is roughly equivalent to the energy needs of some 13,000 homes.

Google, as is also noted on the blog, has been busy this past year searching out and studying various alternative energy companies to not only make decisions regarding which to invest in, but to keep abreast of current technology and to do its part to advance the science wherever it can.

With the investment in SolarCity, Google has chosen a company that doesn't charge maintenance fees for installed equipment, a move it says, is a step in the right direction, if the idea is to get as many homes to upgrade to using solar panels to provide all or some of the electricity needs a family needs. Doing so, would not only bring down electricity costs nationwide, but would allow homeowners more control over their sources of electricity; something Google points out, is imperative if people are to come to see electricity as an asset, rather than a simple commodity.

As Google's director of green business Rick Needham says in an interview with PC Magazine, "We believe the world needs a wide range of clean energy options in the future, each serving different needs."

Clearly, Google is putting their money with their mouth is.