Jul 26 2010
Google Energy, a new business set up by the search giant Google during last year, has signed a 20 year agreement with NextEra Energy Resources, a company engaged in competitive clean energy business, to purchase 114 MW of wind power.
The electric power Google Energy planned to purchase is produced utilizing 100 GE manufactured turbines installed by NextEra at Story County and Hardin County in central Iowa.
GE Wind Turbine at IOWA
Urs Hoelzle, who works as Senior Vice President of operations in Google said in his blog that the energy purchased from NextEra is adequate to power a number of data centers
Google has started looking for alternative energy sources from 2007 and aiming to make its facilities carbon neutral and has already installed solar panels at its headquarters located at Mountain View and purchasing hydropower generated from the Columbia River in Oregon and buying carbon offsets for its efforts.
Google Energy has deferred the idea of using the purchased wind energy to power its facilities located far away from the energy locations fearing energy loss. Instead it has decided to resell the energy generated by the turbine on the spot market and draw back renewable energy credits (REC) linked with the project.
Hoelzle explained in his blog that Google preferred to purchase real power produced by the wind farms located in Iowa instead of purchasing just REC’s because such an act will guarantee a company like NextEra with an assured client and allow the company to build more such wind farms. The inability of getting finance for establishing wind firms severely inhibits the growth of renewal energy developers and the act of purchasing 114 MW power for an extensive period will permit the wind energy manufacturers to build more such projects for other clients.
This agreement also bolsters Google Energy against any future increase in energy prices, and to make profit by selling power in the spot market for a higher price than what it actually pays to NextEra.
Mike O’Sullivan, senior vice president of development in NextEra, thanked the support of Google Energy and explained how such types of client support helped the company to augment its power production from a mere 500 MW a decade ago to 7600 MW plus as of today.