You may remember Google’s plot to take over the world in the coolest manner possible (with driverless cars and augmented reality glasses and the rest of the future). Well, the company apparently plans to take care of the world its taking over, since it invested $200 million in a Texas wind farm.
The Spinning Spur Wind Project in Oldham County, Texas generates the power needed for more than 60,000 homes with 70 turbines. The $200 million Google sunk into the project wasn’t just to help out, though.
"We look for projects like Spinning Spur because, in addition to creating more renewable energy and strengthening the local economy, they also make for smart investments," Kojo Ako-Asare, Google’s senior manager of corporate finance, wrote.
It makes a lot of sense, especially when you begin considering how much energy Google itself uses. Greenpeace estimates Google’s eight current and planned serve farms use about 476 megawatts of electricity when operating at full capacity. That’s the amount it would take to power every house in San Diego. Though Google claims it never works at full capacity, this number is kind of insane.
So Spinning Spur might have implications beyond being green. It’s the tenth green energy investment Google’s made since 2010. The company’s sunk about $1 billion into green energy.