Google to invest $280 million in SolarCity

[News_Editor]

Google to invest $280 million in SolarCity

2011-06-15 00:05:55 GMT+7 (ICT)

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA (BNO NEWS) -- Google Inc. on Tuesday announced that it is investing $280 million in SolarCity to fund further solar energy installations around the United States.

The investment is Google's largest ever in clean energy and, with the latest announcement, the amount invested by the company in the clean energy sector totals to more than $680 million.

The fund is SolarCity's largest project financing fund and the largest residential solar energy fund created in the United States, as SolarCity has now created 15 project funds with seven different partners to finance $1.28 billion in solar energy projects. It currently operates in Arizona, California, Colorado, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Texas, and the District of Columbia.

The SolarCity/Google fund will extend lease and purchase agreement options to customers who seek to install solar panels on their homes, but do not wish to make the larger upfront investment to purchase the systems.

In addition, a new partnership with San Mateo, California-based SolarCity - which already has more than 15,000 projects in the United States either completely working or under construction - will allow Google users to acquire its services at a discounted rate.

"Our investment is a quadruple-win for Google, SolarCity, its new customers and the environment," Google stated, adding that it would continue to look for other renewable energy investments that make business sense and help develop and deploy cleaner sources of energy.

The company added: "We believe the world needs a wide range of clean energy options in the future, each serving different needs. 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."

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