Google Invests In 104 MW Utah Solar Plant

Originally published on Sustainnovate.

Google has a long history of investing in wind and solar power plants. It is now getting a lot of its electricity from wind and solar. One of its more interesting clean energy investment stories is that it invested $145 million into a solar power plant in California that was being installed on a former oil field. Its most recent investment, its 18th in a renewable energy project, is also an interesting one. It is investing in a solar power plant that is being built in Utah (in the United States) by a Norwegian company, Statec Solar.

It’s quite a large project. With a capacity of 104 megawatts (MW), it would have been the largest solar power plant in the world just back in 2011. It is now far below the record 550 MW Topaz Solar Farm developed by 2015 Zayed Future Energy Prize finalist First Solar, but it is still big. It’s Statec Solar’s largest to date in North America.

Google is investing tax equity into this project, with Prudential Capital Group providing debt financing. Scatec Solar itself is providing sponsor equity.

Once complete (scheduled for the end of 2015), Google and Scatec Solar will jointly own Red Hills Renewable Energy Park, the name of the project.

Google’s renewable energy project investments now come to $1.5 billion. This is no charity. This is about financial benefit as well as helping to protect the climate, air, and water.

Image: “A computer-generated model of the Utah Red Hills Renewable Energy Park site,” via Scatec Solar.

Reprinted with permission.