Google invests $12 million in South African solar farm

May 30 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Dana Hull San Jose Mercury News

Google (GOOG) has invested $1 billion in a dozen renewable energy projects, from a wind farm in West Texas to the massive Ivanpah solar power plant under construction in California's Mojave Desert.

Now the tech titan is increasingly looking overseas, where its dollars in support of clean energy often have an even greater impact.

On Thursday, Google announced it is investing $12 million in the Jasper Power Project, a solar power plant that will be built in South Africa's Northern Cape. When complete, the 96 megawatt solar facility will be one of the largest

solar power plants on the continent, capable of generating enough electricity for 30,000 South African homes.

"South Africa stands out as a country where the demand for power is great and growing faster than supply," said Rick Needham, Google's director of energy and sustainability, in an interview. "They've had rolling blackouts. South Africa has very good solar and wind resources, and the potential is great."

Santa Monica-based SolarReserve, which opened an office in South Africa in 2011, is developing the solar power plant with several South African partners, including the Kensani Group and Intikon Energy.

"South Africa has largely depended on coal as their main source for power generation. It's been a coal-based

system, and they're looking to diversify," said SolarReserve CEO Kevin Smith in an interview. "It's a significant achievement for the South African government to attract a high quality investor like Google."

South Africa has the biggest solar market on the African continent, thanks to a well-structured government program called the REIPPPP, or Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Program. The government has set an aggressive goal of generating 18,000 megawatts of renewable

energy by 2030. The entire South African grid is about 44,000 megawatts.

The Jasper Power Plant project is Google's 12th renewable energy project to date. In January, Google announced that it was investing $200 million in the Spinning Spur Wind Farm in West Texas. Needham said that Google will continue to make investments in clean energy projects in the United States and abroad.

"There are interesting opportunities around the world," said Needham. "The clean energy future is going to come. It's on a cost curve that is going down. Right now we're the only U.S. corporate equity investor in the Jasper Power Project. We hope other companies could think about coming and investing as well."

Contact Dana Hull at 408-920-2706. Follow her at Twitter.com/danahull.

Google's $1 billion in clean energy investments

1. $12 million in the Jasper Power Project, a solar power plant to be built in South Africa

2. $200 million in the Spinning Spur Wind Farm, a 161 megawatt wind farm in West Texas

3. $75 million in the Rippey Wind Farm, a 50 megawatt wind farm in Iowa

4. $94 million in four solar photovoltaic projects being built by Recurrent Energy near Sacramento

5. $75 million to create a fund with Clean Power Finance to help up to 3,000 homeowners go solar

6. $280 million in a SolarCity fund to help 8,000 customers go solar

7. $168 million in BrightSource Energy's Ivanpah project, a solar thermal plant currently being built in California's Mojave Desert

8. Investment in the Atlantic Wind Connection, critical transmission infrastructure for offshore wind power

9. $157 million into Alta Wind, a wind farm in the Tehachapi Mountains in Southern California

10. $100 million in the Shepherd's Flat iwind farm in Oregon

11. $38.8 million into two wind farms in North Dakota

12. $5 million in a solar power plant in Brandenburg, Germany

Source: http://www.google.com/green/energy/investments/.

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