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Google buys up power from Iowa wind farm

The Story wind farm in Iowa, which uses 1.5MW-rated GE turbines, will now supply much of its power to Google

Internet giant Google has made another investment in wind power, agreeing a 20-year deal to buy 114 megawatts of power from a wind farm in Iowa.

The deal will see power deliveries begin on July 30 for a predetermined but undisclosed rate through its wholesale power division, Google Energy.

But, the company will not be using the power itself – it is selling on the energy into the regional spot market.

Google is buying power from the 100-turbine Story II Wind Energy Center, which has been operating in Story and Hardin Counties since December 2009.

The wind farm was developed by Florida company NextEra Energy Resources, from whom Google is buying its power.

Remaining power from the 150MW wind farm is going to the city of Ames, Iowa.

The move comes a few months after Google’s $38.8 million investment in two of NextEra’s wind farms in North Dakota (see this BrighterEnergy.org story).

Urs Hoelzle, Senior Vice President of Operations for Google said on the company’s official blog this morning: “The inability of renewable energy developers to obtain financing has been a significant inhibitor to the expansion of renewable energy.

“We’ve been excited about this deal because taking 114 megawatts of wind power off the market for so long means producers have the incentive and means to build more renewable energy capacity for other customers.”

Energy resale

Google, based in Mountain View, California, said its latest deal would provide the equivalent of enough power for several of its data centers.

However, the company said it would not be using the energy from the Story wind farm itself, as it would be “tricky” to integrate within its current energy portfolio.

Instead, its energy retail arm, Google Energy, will be selling on the power via the regional spot market for electricity.

The company said it would be retiring the Renewable Energy Certificates associated with the wind power purchase agreement.

Google believes buying electricity directly from a wind farm, rather than only renewable energy certificates associated with a clean energy project, would have a greater impact on the renewable energy industry.

It said: “Our long-term commitment directly frees up capital for the developer to build more wind projects.”

NextEra

NextEra Energy, which has its HQ in Juno Beach, Florida, already has 700 wind turbines in operation in Iowa, providing a nameplate capacity of more than 1,000MW.

NextEra senior vice president of development Mike O’Sullivan said today: “With the support of customers like Google Energy, we’ve built our wind fleet from fewer than 500MW a decade ago to more than 7,600MW – the largest fleet in North America today.”