Google announced that it has made an equity investment of $75 million, making a total contribution of almost $1 billion to the renewable energy sector, in a 50MW wind farm in Rippey, a small town in Greene County. The project, developed by RPM Access is expected to power over 15,000 Iowa homes. The project uses turbines produced by Nordex USA at their Jonesboro, Ark. facility and is now in operation.
Here is what Google has to say:
We’ve taken two approaches to greening the grid in Iowa, a state where we operate a data center. Back in 2010, we entered into a long-term contract to purchase wind energy from NextEra Energy Resources’ Story County II wind farm. This time, we’re investing directly into a wind project, which has been contracted to sell all of the energy to the Central Iowa Power Cooperative, an Iowa-based utility that will deliver the energy to local consumers. We’re happy to help make more renewable energy available to Iowans and to support the growing wind energy industry in the state.