Google signs deal with wind farm

July 22nd 2010

Google has signed a 20-year deal with a wind farm as part of its commitment to green technologies, it has emerged.

The search engine giant has entered into the agreement with NextEra Energy via its Google Energy subsidiary, which will see it purchase 114 megawatts of electricity from an Iowa wind farm starting from 30 July.

NextEra Energy will also benefit from additional financial security for forthcoming wind farm work, given that Google purchased the renewable energy certificate directly rather than the common practice of brokering a deal through a third party.

Writing on a blog this week, Google's senior vice president for operations Urs Hoelzle explained: "By contracting to purchase so much energy for so long, we're giving the developer of the wind farm financial certainty to build additional clean energy projects."

He added that his organisation was satisfied with the deal, as the long-term nature of the agreement will also give NextEra Energy the resources and incentive to enter into renewable energy projects with several other companies.

"This is a case where buying green makes business sense." Mr Hoelzle declared.