Google is investing $103 million dollars into the 265.7 MW Mount Signal Solar project in California that’s being developed by solar developer Silver Ridge Power. The move represents yet another large investment into the renewable energy sector by the tech giant.
The partnership between Silver Ridge Power and Google was announced on October 10 and marks the 13th time that Google has invested in a utility-scale renewable energy project, raising its total monetary investment in such projects, to date, to over one billion dollars and 2 gigawatts (GW) of power capacity.
The 265.7 MW Mount Signal Solar project is currently under construction in Imperial County in California and is expected to become fully operational sometime in 2014. Google provides more info: “Like many states, California has a goal of increasing the amount of energy procured from renewable sources. The energy from Mount Signal Solar, which has been contracted to San Diego Gas & Electric, will help California meet this goal. The project, which is owned and operated by Silver Ridge Power (formerly AES Solar), will also create over 900 construction jobs in a part of the state that suffers from high unemployment. ”
The head of Google’s corporate finance, Kojo Ako-Asare, states that the new partnership is yet another sign of Google’s “ongoing commitment to the renewable energy industry and our strong belief that investing in renewable energy makes business sense.”
“We are pleased to have a world-class partner in Google on our flagship Mount Signal Solar project. We are on schedule to complete the project in 2014 and when completed it will be one of the largest single-axis tracker PV plants in the world,” stated Robert Hemphill, CEO of Silver Ridge Power.
