# Google Goes Solar PPA and Wind Is Next!

- Link: https://greenlivingguy.com/2011/04/google-goes-solar-ppa-and-wind-is-next/
- Published: 2011-04-27T14:54:17-04:00
- Author: greenlivingguy

Google said it would plough 3.5 million euros ($5.0 million) into one of Germany’s
biggest solar plants, located in Brandenburg, the state surrounding Berlin.

“Until the early 1990s, the site was used as a training ground by the Russian military.
We’re glad it has found a new use,” the firm said in a posting on its European Public
Policy Blog.

[Google](https://phys.org/tags/google/) said the plant should provide power for 
5,000 homes in the area. The investment still needs official approval. It has also
invested in wind power projects in the United States.

[_**Google states:**_](https://www.blog.google/)

We’ve been carbon neutral since 2007 and—Earth Day or not—we’re always asking ourselves
what we can do to make the world greener today than it was yesterday. This week,
we launched a [new website](https://sustainability.google) with many of the questions
we’ve been asking over the years that have inspired our environmental initiatives.
What can we do to [make renewable energy cheaper than coal](https://sustainability.google)?
How can we [run a data center using 50 percent less energy](https://sustainability.google)?
And what does it take to green our energy supply?

 It’s questions like these that led us to install solar panels on our Mountain View
campus in 2007—at the time, the largest corporate solar installation in the U.S.
They’re also what made us decide to donate to Googlers’ favorite charities based
on how often they self-power their commute, whether [by bike](https://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/05/celebrating-bike-to-work-days.html)
or by pogo stick. We hope the [new website](https://sustainability.google) helps
you start asking bold questions that lead to innovative solutions to make the world
a greener place.

 In addition they’ve _doubled down on greening our energy supply with our [second power purchase agreement](https://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/04/oklahoma-where-wind-comes-sweepin-down.html)(
PPA) in less than a year and made several new investments: at a solar photovoltaic
plant in [Germany](https://europe.googleblog.com/2011/04/google-to-invest-in-german-solar-power.html)(
our first in Europe), and others in the largest [wind farm](https://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/04/shepherding-wind.html)
and [solar project](https://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/04/investing-in-worlds-largest-solar-power.html)
in the world, bringing our total invested in clean energy to more than $350 million.
While the investments won’t supply our operations with [ energy](https://greenlivingguy.com/2022/08/10-largest-wind-project-development-2022/),
we believe they make business sense and will spur development and deployment of 
compelling clean energy technologies._

The announcement came as the German government wrestles with its future nuclear 
energy policy in the midst of the nuclear catastrophe in Japan.

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