There are companies and then there is Google.
Google is known as an organization that is at the forefront of technology, and it is commendable that they are also striving to be at the forefront of promoting green energy at the consumer level. Among large companies, they are aggressively promoting micro projects for distributed energy.
They have set up a $280-million solar power fund to help homeowners finance rooftop installations. They made an agreement with SolarCity, a company based in San Mateo, California that installs roof-top solar panels to promote these activities in the sunny state.
SolarCity offers lease programs and power purchase agreements that enable customers avoid daunting upfront installation expenses. Google provides fund to SolarCity to pay for installation and maintenance costs for those. Customers pay in monthly installments for the electricity produced by the solar panels on their roof, a part of which goes to Google.
This indeed is a win-win situation. Consumers receive the benefit as their utility bill goes down, and Google gets return for their investment over longer horizon. The CEO of SolarCity, said, “It's not just about a dramatic environmental impact, it's also a good return. Google's leading the way and other companies could follow suit.” SolarCity now has created 15 such funds in partnership with companies such as Citigroup Inc., U.S. Bancorp and others.
A trade group, called Solar Energy Industries Assn., revealed that by the end of 2010, home solar panels were producing 74 megawatts of electricity, which is capable to power 74,000 average homes. That was 33% increase in just one year.
Google’s investment in renewable energy is not limited to this activity only; they have invested $55 million in a wind farm and $168 million in a solar thermal plant in the Mojave Desert. The company has sunk nearly $700 million into wind farms, solar power systems and electric vehicle programs.
GE recently announced development of thin-film solar panel which would reduce the cost of solar power to 15 cents a kilowatt-hour or lower. They also predicted that within five years solar cells would be cheaper than fossil powered generation—generation from coal and gas powered power stations. This would be a tremendous boost to all projects that businesses such as SolarCity are conducting.
The green days do not seem very far-off now!
Share n Enjoy
Google is known as an organization that is at the forefront of technology, and it is commendable that they are also striving to be at the forefront of promoting green energy at the consumer level. Among large companies, they are aggressively promoting micro projects for distributed energy.
They have set up a $280-million solar power fund to help homeowners finance rooftop installations. They made an agreement with SolarCity, a company based in San Mateo, California that installs roof-top solar panels to promote these activities in the sunny state.
SolarCity offers lease programs and power purchase agreements that enable customers avoid daunting upfront installation expenses. Google provides fund to SolarCity to pay for installation and maintenance costs for those. Customers pay in monthly installments for the electricity produced by the solar panels on their roof, a part of which goes to Google.
This indeed is a win-win situation. Consumers receive the benefit as their utility bill goes down, and Google gets return for their investment over longer horizon. The CEO of SolarCity, said, “It's not just about a dramatic environmental impact, it's also a good return. Google's leading the way and other companies could follow suit.” SolarCity now has created 15 such funds in partnership with companies such as Citigroup Inc., U.S. Bancorp and others.
A trade group, called Solar Energy Industries Assn., revealed that by the end of 2010, home solar panels were producing 74 megawatts of electricity, which is capable to power 74,000 average homes. That was 33% increase in just one year.
Google’s investment in renewable energy is not limited to this activity only; they have invested $55 million in a wind farm and $168 million in a solar thermal plant in the Mojave Desert. The company has sunk nearly $700 million into wind farms, solar power systems and electric vehicle programs.
GE recently announced development of thin-film solar panel which would reduce the cost of solar power to 15 cents a kilowatt-hour or lower. They also predicted that within five years solar cells would be cheaper than fossil powered generation—generation from coal and gas powered power stations. This would be a tremendous boost to all projects that businesses such as SolarCity are conducting.
The green days do not seem very far-off now!
Share n Enjoy
No comments:
Post a Comment
Every day in this blog, our posts are flooded with help request comments from all around the world. The mad, the bad and the downright stupid.
Our dedicated team go through each and every one of these comments.
Just a very few comments actually are replying by our team. If you post url(s) to another websites even we don't approve your comment. (you can link to any page in this blog)