Google Signs Wind Power Contract with NextEra
Google Energy, a subsidiary of Google that was created to give the company the ability to buy power on the wholesale market, has signed a 20-year deal to buy 114 megawatts of power from the NextEra Energy Resources Story County II wind farm in Iowa. This is just one of many approaches that Google takes to try to become a carbon-neutral company.
Starting July 30, the Internet search company will buy wind generation at a fixed price each year from NextEra. Google will then sell the power back to the energy grid through the regional spot market.
According to Google, “By contracting to purchase so much energy for so long, we’re giving the developer of the wind farm financial certainty to build additional clean energy projects. The inability of renewable energy developers to obtain financing has been a significant inhibitor to the expansion of renewable energy. We’ve been excited about this deal because taking 114 megawatts of wind power off the market for so long means producers have the incentive and means to build more renewable energy capacity for other customers.”
Google Energy LLC was established last December and in February won regulatory approval to trade in U.S. wholesale electricity markets. Google’s first direct investment in utility-scale renewable-energy generation occurred this past May with the $38.8 million investment in two North Dakota wind farms, Output from those facilities, which have been operating since last year, is being sold to utilities under power-purchase agreements.
