Captain Planet: Internet powerhouse is turning into a green power machine.”Imagine sitting on your patio watching the sun’s rays pass overhead, knowing that they power your home with clean energy,” declares Google.
The search giant is investing $280 million to help fund SolarCity projects, a third party company which encourages use of solar energy to power their homes and buildings.
But far be it for Google to stay on the sidelines and it has ” launched a partnership to offer SolarCity services to Googlers at a discount,” it said yesterday.
“This is our largest clean energy project investment to date and brings our total invested in the clean energy sector to more than $680 million.”
And tear up your power bills, Googlers as this will “cost less than what you would have paid using just the grid,” it added.
SolarCity’s “innovative” financing model covers installation and maintenance of the system over the life of the lease, “prepay, or pay nothing upfront after which requires monthly solar lease payments.
The search engine has already invested in several large-scale renewable energy projects, announcing multimillion investments in wind farms in the US states of California and Oregan already this year.
“We think “distributed” renewable energy (generated and used right at home) is a smart way to use solar photovoltaic (PV) technology to improve our power system since it helps avoid or alleviate distribution constraints on the traditional electricity grid.”
Google engineer Michael Flaster has been using the solar system at his Menlo Park, Calif. since March of this year.