Google has announced a partnership with Silver Ridge Power LLC that will see the search engine giant further advance its commitment to clean energy with a $103 million investment in a new solar power plant.
The 265 MW Mount Signal Solar utility-scale PV plant is currently under construction in Imperial County, California. It is expected to come online in 2014, with San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) already agreeing to a long-term power purchase agreement with the plant.
The plant represents Googles 13th major investment in renewable energy projects, with the company having more than $1 billion committed to clean energy around the world, the majority of these ventures in the U.S. This investment takes Google's commitment to 2 GW of renewable power, which is enough to supply 500,000 American homes annually.
"Our investment in Mount Signal Solar is a reflection of Googles ongoing commitment to the renewable energy industry and our strong belief that investing in renewable energy makes business sense," said Googles head of corporate finance, Kojo Ako-Asare. "This is the first time Silver Ridge Power has partnered with a technology company; we appreciate their innovative approach and we hope to see more such partnerships in the future."
Silver Ridge Powers CEO, Robert Hemphill, added: 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.
"Mount Signal Solar represents over half of Silver Ridge Powers total installed capacity and will provide clean, renewable energy to more than 80,000 homes in California."
Googles chief stipulation prior to investment is for Mount Signal to begin operation, which is a customary condition that the technology giant imposes on all of its investments. The solar farm will be supplied with solar panels from First Solar, while Array Technologies has provided its DuraTrack HZ single-axis tracker for the full 265 MW of the plant.
This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.
By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.
Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.
You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.
Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.