Google's $280 Million Investment in Building U.S. Solar Energy Infrastructure

24/08/2011

Google have amazing ratings for employee satisfaction, serve 100 percent local food in its massive cafeteria, and power its "Googleplex" with over 9,000 solar panels situated atop its four main buildings, but now Google plans to help homeowners get solar panels to power their own homes as well.

Massive international companies are not usually known for being particularly conscientious, polite, employee-friendly, or "green," but the wildly successful and hugely profitable internet giant Google certainly is. Not only does Google have amazing ratings for employee satisfaction, serve 100 percent local food in its massive cafeteria, and power its "Googleplex" with over 9,000 solar panels situated atop its four main buildings, but now Google plans to help homeowners get solar panels to power their own homes as well.

Who doesn't want solar panels? One simple fact prevents the world from turning to "free energy," and that is that it isn't free. Sure sunlight is free. Yes, you will save money over the next 15 years, but not that many people can afford an upfront cost that ranges from a few thousand to the tens of thousands depending on the size and scope of the needed system.

In California, SolarCity has been leasing solar panels to consumers so that they can pay over time for their renewable energy. The homeowner doesn't actually own the system, but pays SolarCity each month to have the panels installed on the homeowner's property, wired to their house, and properly maintained. The need for upfront money to construct and install PVC panels has limited the project's growth to some extent, but it has still managed to spread to a number of western states.

Now, Google has put up $280 million to fund SolarCity's financing project. The money will allow SolarCity to expand into yet another state, which will give it operations in 11 states in the US and allow the company to make more power purchase agreements with homeowners, businesses, and schools. Not only will it increase the availability of solar power, but it will also decrease the payments these individuals and businesses make for the power they use. It's good for everyone, except the power companies.

Google says that its investment is as much about business as it is about doing something good. Google expects to eventually see return on its cash at the same time that it wants to ensure that it is able to get its own increasing power needs met through sustainable sources. Both businesses hope to show that investments in renewable energy can pay returns at the same time that they reduce our use of non-renewable resources and our production of greenhouse gasses.

At the rate that SolarCity is expanding its contracts, the idea of an electric car somehow makes more sense. Cars that plug-in to recharge their batteries do little to reduce greenhouse emissions if that electricity has to come from a coal-burning power plant.

The catch is really almost funny to those who are counting the tons of CO2 produced each way; but if the electricity could come from solar panels on the homeowner's roof, for less than the home's current power bill, now that would be something. Parked behind all those garage doors of suburbia could be sunlight-powered vehicles that plug in to a SolarCity constructed set of solar panels, financed by Google's forward-thinking investment, that the homeowner pays for with the payment of their reasonable electric bill made out to SolarCity.

Dude, Where's My Solar Energy Infrastructure?

Why did we have to wait for Google to invest in building our solar energy infrastructure? What has happened to the government's commitment to green energy and creating jobs in the green sector?

It looks like it took the money-making minds of Silicon Valley to come up with the idea of backing this brilliant scheme. SolarCity says they don't have to beat the price of coal, they only have to beat the price the consumer pays its utility company. The consumer will vote with their dollars even if they don't care about being green at all. It looks like with the help of Silicon Valley and Solar City, capitalism may eventually trick the United States into going green.

Source: reuters.com

Google's $280 Million Investment in Building U.S. Solar Energy Infrastructure

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