Google is increasing its investment in Californias 1.55-gigawatt Alta Wind Energy Center by $102 million. The money will finance the so-called fifth phase of Alta Wind in the Tehachapi Mountains, one of the largest planned in the globe.
This is the second time Google is investing in the wind farm together with Citigroup Inc. which will also invest $102 million. The Internet giant and Citigroup previously invested $55 million each in the 102-MW Alta IV. Google has now invested $157 million at the Alta wind farms.
Alta Wind is being developed by North Carolina-based Terra-Gen Power, L.L.C., an affiliate of ArcLight Capital Partners L.L.C. and Global Infrastructure Partners.
The 1.55-GW Alta Wind wind farm is being built in stages, with an initial design of 3 GW in 2010.
It is to date one of the biggest planned wind farms in the world, being larger than Caithness Energy, L.L.C.’s 845-megawatt, $2 billion Shepherds Flat wind farm being built in Oregon, which Google has also invested $100 million on last April. Shepherds Flat is expected to go online this year.
Alta Wind is almost double the size of the 781.5-MW Roscoe Wind Farm currently in operation in Texas, but will surpass it upon the completion of 1,020 MW by yearend.
The first five development stages of Alta Wind, including Alta IV and V, have a total capacity of 720 MW and are already operational, Google said in a statement. Alta I, II and III each can produce 150 MW.
Another 300 MW from two 150-MW wind farms is expected to be online this year. Terra-Gen closed a $631 million financing round for Alta VI and VIII on June 1.
The Alta projects will use a new transmission line developed as part of the 4,500-MW Tehachapi Renewable Transmission Project. It is the first major transmission project primarily to transport electricity from remote, renewable energy projects in the Tehachapi region to population centers in Southern California and elsewhere.
Southern California Edison will purchase all of the energy generated by the 1.55-GW wind farm under a power purchase agreement signed in 2006. Alta Wind’s output is enough to power 450,000 homes.
Google will not buy electricity from the projects. The Alta projects are using a leveraged lease structure where the company and Citi are purchasing the Alta V project and will lease it back to Terra-Gen, who will manage and operate the wind projects under long-term agreements.
Google has emerged as one of the most aggressive renewable energy investors this year, which has now invested over $780 million into clean power projects and technologies.
Rick Needham, the company’s director of green business operations, said the company has invested about $700 million into renewable energy projects this year alone.
Just last week, Google created a $280 million fund for solar installer SolarCity, its largest renewable energy investment to date, and its first in residential solar rooftops.
California wind
Alta Wind could help California reclaim its title as wind leader aside from being a prime destination for solar projects.
California previously led in the global wind energy market in the industry’s early years. According to a report from the Center of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Technologies released in 2008, the state accounted for 90 percent of the world’s wind power market in 1988.
Twenty years later, the trade group said the state’s market share on wind power fell to less than 4 percent of world market share, despite a mandate to have 33 percent of its electricity from renewable energy sources by 2020.
Currently, the state gets just 3.3 percent of its electricity from wind, compared with 15.4 percent in Iowa and 6.4 percent in Texas, according to the American Wind Energy Association’s annual report for 2010.
