News | Energy Efficiency

http://www.newenergyworldnetwork.com/renewable-energy-news/by-technology/wind/google-japanese-companies-invest-500m-in-world%e2%80%99s-largest-wind-farm.html

Google has made a $100m investment into what will be the largest wind farm in the world alongside two Japanese companies in a deal that will see the project raise a total of $500m.

The two co-investors in the Shepherds Flat Wind Farm to be built in the US state of Oregon are Sumitomo Corporation of America and Tyr Energy, a subsidiary of Japan-based Itochu.
In a blog post on Monday, Google said when complete in 2012 the wind farm will produce 845MW of energy.
‘This project is exciting to us not only because of its size and scale, but also because it uses advanced technology. This will be the first commercial wind farm in the US to deploy, at scale, turbines that use permanent magnet generators – tech-speak for evolutionary turbine technology that will improve efficiency, reliability and grid connection capabilities,’ Google’s blog said.
The technology has been installed already outside of the US but the search engine giant said it was an incremental step in lowering the cost of wind energy over the long term.
The project developers are Caithness Energy and General Electric, which was an early investor into the project.
This latest investment brings Google’s total commitment to clean energy to more than $350m, having recently pledged funds to a German solar photovoltaic plant and BrightSource Energy’s Ivanpah solar power tower.