{"id":206,"date":"2013-01-13T14:22:48","date_gmt":"2013-01-13T19:22:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2013\/01\/googles-invests-in-wind-and-solar.html"},"modified":"2013-01-13T14:22:48","modified_gmt":"2013-01-13T19:22:48","slug":"googles-invests-in-wind-and-solar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2013\/01\/googles-invests-in-wind-and-solar.html","title":{"rendered":"Google invests in wind and solar"},"content":{"rendered":"

\nWhile Southern Company and Georgia Power pour money\ndown that nuclear pit by the Savannah River and Progress Energy can’t\nafford to fix its Crystal River nuke, Google’s\nwind and solar projects are already online on time,\nall for less than the cost overruns so far at Vogtle\nor the fix-it price at Crystal River.\n<\/p>\n

\nDavid Goldman wrote for CNN Money 10 January 2013,\n\nGoogle invests $200 million in Texas wind farm<\/a>,\n<\/p>\n

\n

\n\n<\/a>\n“We look for projects like Spinning Spur because, in addition to\ncreating more renewable energy and strengthening the local economy,\nthey also make for smart investments,” Kojo Ako-Asare, Google’s\nsenior manager of corporate finance, said in a\n\nblog post<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n

\nAko-Asare added that wind farms offer “attractive returns relative\nto the risks.”\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nWhich is the opposite of nuclear’s\n\nhuge risks<\/a> relative to the\n\napparently negative returns.<\/a>\nSo how much wind and solar energy does Google generate?\n<\/p>\n\n\n

\n

\n\n<\/a>\nSpinning Spur is the 10th green energy investment Google has made\nsince 2010. It’s the second most expensive investment, behind only a\n\n$280 million stake in SolarCity<\/a>, a solar systems company. The\ncompany has\n\nfive solar investments<\/a> and five wind investments.\n<\/p>\n

\nIn all, Google has invested more than $1 billion in renewable\nenergy.\n<\/p>\n

\nThe company said all 10 projects are capable of generating a\ncombined 2 gigawatts of power \u2014 enough to power 500,000 homes\nfor a year.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nSo for less than the cost overruns so far at Plant Vogtle,\nGoogle has bought almost energy generation\nas much as the 2.2 GW the two new nukes\nare supposed to produce, except Google’s wind and solar projects\nare already online on time.\nAnd while SO and Georgia Power are struggling to finish that one project,\nGoogle is busily getting on with more.\n<\/p>\n

\n\n<\/a>\nWho has the better track record with new energy deployment?\nGoogle with its renewable energy investments out of its own profits?\nOr Southern Company with\n\nthat nuclear boondoggle<\/a>\nand Georgia Power with its\n\nrate hikes for both nuclear and natural gas?<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

\n-jsq\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While Southern Company and Georgia Power pour money down that nuclear pit by the Savannah River and Progress Energy can’t afford to fix its Crystal River nuke, Google’s wind and solar projects are already online on time, all for less than the cost overruns so far at Vogtle or the fix-it price at Crystal River. […]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[14,8,18,104,23,289,24,53,121,36],"tags":[712,8704,8701,8708,639,8702,12,7,8737,107,8713,8758,8714,108,934,8725,6,8739,8716],"class_list":["post-206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economy","category-georgia","category-georgia-power","category-nuclear","category-renewable-energy","category-science","category-solar","category-sustainability","category-webtech","category-wind","tag-boondoggle","tag-economy","tag-georgia","tag-georgia-power","tag-google","tag-lake","tag-lowndes-area-knowledge-exchange","tag-lowndes-county","tag-nuclear","tag-plant-vogtle","tag-renewable-energy","tag-science","tag-solar","tag-southern-company","tag-spinning-spur","tag-sustainability","tag-valdosta","tag-webtech","tag-wind"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p585fK-3k","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}