Google kicked off 2013 with an announcement about a new, $200 million equity investment in a wind farm in west Texas. The wind farm can generate enough electricity to power 60,000 average U.S. homes.
The Spinning Spur Wind Project is located in Oldham County, which is about 35 miles from Amarillo. The 161 megawatt facility was built by renewable energy developer EDF Renewable Energy, a company with more than 50 alternative energy projects under its belt.
“We look for projects like Spinning Spur because, in addition to creating more renewable energy and strengthening the local economy, they also make for smart investments: they offer attractive returns relative to the risks and allow us to invest in a broad range of assets,†Google said.
Spinning Spur is the 11th alternative energy investment made by Google since 2010, totally 2 GW of potential clean power generation. These include Shepherds Flat, a 845 MW wind farm, one of the world’s largest of its kind in the world. It went online in October.
The company created an infograph to illustrate what exactly 2 GW of electricity means – basically, quite a lot of clean energy!
