Google to invest in green energy project	Visited: 1249 Not rated Rate: Select 1 - Terrible 2 - Poor 3 - Average 4 - Good 5 - Outstanding
by Stephans bond January 14, 2011

Google is planning to inject equity into the green energy initiative, to tap into offshore power generation potential.To provide a much needed push to the renewable energy development in U.S., Google is now planning to invest in a backbone transmission infrastructure.

The transmission infrastructure would be established in the mid-Atlantic region and is meant for consumption in the region itself.

The project
The expanse of the Atlantic Wind Connection (AWC) backbone would be stretched from the coast of New Jersey to Virginia, for about 350 miles.

The transmission grid would collect power, via undersea cables from the off-shore power hubs and deliver it to the land based transmission system. The construction for the project is scheduled to begin by 2013 and it would be capable of power transmission by 2016.

The AWC project would be led by the independent transmission company called Trans-Elect. Good Energies, Marubeni and Google would be the other companies, having a chunk’s stake in the project.

The Government signed the agreement, which has been named the ‘Cape Wind’ lease in the presence of the U.S Secretary for Interior, Ken Salazar. The lease agreement would be the first of its kind, in the outer continental shelf.

The Google factor
Google will be providing 37.5% of the equity, at the initial stage. Google, owing to the humongous size of its business operations, has to maintain a number of data centers throughout the country.

The dedicated data centers, consume a massive amount of energy for its effective functioning. Thus, the green energy initiative might positively contribute to offset, some of its energy costs.

The AWC project would reportedly cost something around $5 billion. The project aims at covering the South Virginia, Delaware and New Jersey region. The first phase of the project would be connecting the New Jersey and Delaware regions, with undersea cables to the transmission lines.

The U.S National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NERL) has estimated that offshore winds has the potential of generating energy, which would be equivalent to four times the generation capacity of the country at present

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