Google Invests In Altamont Pass Wind Farm To Power Its Mountain View Headquarters
MOUNTAIN VIEW (KCBS)— Google announced on Wednesday a 20-year deal with the Altamont Pass wind farm that will allow its Mountain View headquarters to be entirely powered by wind energy.
The announcement comes on the heels of Apple announcement this week that it is building a solar energy farm to power their Cupertino 'spaceship' complex, slated to open in 2016.
The San Jose Mercury News reports the wind farm is owned and operated by NextEra Energy, a Florida-based company. NextEra will replace about 770 old wind turbines from the 1980s with 48 new machines that are said to produce twice as much energy.
The Mercury News reported Google will provide half of the funds for the agreement with NextEra and another investor which remains undisclosed. The price of agreement is also not being disclosed by either company.
Ryan Wiser, a staff scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory said wind is becoming increasingly popular as an energy source because he says the cost of wind energy has declined "substantially" over the last several years and in addition, state and federal policies have been driving the market forward.
Tim Bajarin, president of tech industry consulting firm Creative Strategies, said there's interest across the board in wind and solar power.
"Intel's server farms in Oregon are moving in this direction and Microsoft has made commitments in the same way. The bottom line is, all of our tech companies who do, I think, understand the issue of the role of energy and more specifically their own factories and facilities are very power-hungry that they can't really depend on traditional electricity in the way they have in the past."