“Google is emerging as the ultimate clean power sugar daddy. On Tuesday morning, Google announced it has made its largest investment in clean power to date, creating a $280 million fund for rooftop solar panel projects that will be installed by solar company SolarCity. The deal also represents Google’s first investment in residential and distributed solar.
Google has now invested $680 million into clean power projects, a size which rivals a large VC or private equity greentech fund or Department of Energy program. While Google’s investments in utility-scale centralized solar projects and transmission lines for clean power could be seen as a way for Google to source cleaner energy for its data centers, home rooftop solar installations are pretty far removed from Google’s data center energy, and Google insists the SolarCity investment is about returns and environmentalism.” via GigaOM
