Google and Norwegian power company Scatec Solar have partnered to construct the largest solar farm in Utah.
Yahoo Finance reports Google, Scatec and Prudential Capital Group announced an investment of USD $188 million to build the 80 MW facility in Iron County, Utah. Google is the tax equity investor in the deal.
The Utah Red Hills Renewable Energy Park is expected to generate approximately 210 million kilowatt-hours of electricity a year, enough to power around 18,500 homes. Electricity generated at the solar farm will be exported to the grid under a twenty-year Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with PacifiCorp’s Rocky Mountain Power.
Scatec says it will deploy approximately 325,000 solar panels on a single-axis tracking system for the project and the facility will interconnect to an existing transmission line.
“When complete, the Red Hills solar plant will be Scatec Solar’s largest developed and constructed project in North America,” says CEO Raymond Carlsen.
Figures from Scatec Solar indicate the company has 219MW of solar capacity currently operational throughout the world, a project backlog of 214MW and a pipeline of 680MW.
Electricity produced by Scatec constructed projects was an estimated 73,736 MWh in the third quarter last year.
The Utah Red Hills Renewable Energy Park is Google’s 18th renewable energy investment.
In September last year, Google announced it would be providing USD $145 million in equity financing for SunEdison, Inc.’s (NYSE: SUNE) Regulus solar plant
Other Google-backed projects include.
– Mount Signal Solar project
– Makani Airborne Wind Turbine
– Alta Wind Energy Center
– a solar farm in Germany
– Atlantic Wind Connection
– a 114 megawatt wind farm in Iowa
– a USD$280 million fund to finance residential solar power installations.
– $75 million in Clean Power Finance
– Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System
– Shepherds Flat Wind Farm in Oregon
– Two wind farms in North Dakota
– $94 million in a portfolio of four solar farms in California
– Jasper Power Project
Google has so far made agreements to fund over $1.5 billion in renewable energy projects and states total nameplate capacity of all it renewable energy project investments is over 2.5 GW. Combined, the projects are expected to generate over 6 billion kWh annually
“We’re helping create a clean energy future that’s better for our business and the environment,” says the company.
The giant of search is currently using renewable energy to power 35% of its operations and is continuing to look for ways to increase its use of clean energy.
