Google invests $75M in Iowa wind farm, bringing total renewable green investments to $1B

Google just announced it is investing $75 million in renewable green energy —specifically wind energy— in Iowa.

“Today we‘re announcing that we’ve made an equity investment of $75 million in a 50MW wind farm in Rippey, a small town in Greene County, about an hour outside of Des Moines,” explained Google on the official Google blog. “The Rippey project, developed by RPM Access, is expected to produce enough energy to power over 15,000 Iowa homes.”

The  wind farm investment now brings Google’s total investment to the renewable energy sector to more than $990 million. Yeah, that’s almost $1 billion in green energy. Google further revealed it has taken two approaches to “greening the grid in Iowa”:

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.

Google currently owns and operates a data center in Council Bluffs that has created 130 jobs on-site jobs for Iowans, and the company has awarded more than $608,000 to local schools and non-profit organizations.

Get more details at the official Google blog.