Google has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in the United States clean energy market, and announced on Thursday that the company will now be expanding its investments, with $12 million going toward a 96 megawatt solar panel farm in South Africa.
Known as the Jasper Power Project, the solar farm will be built in the Northern Cape province and deliver enough clean energy for about 30,000 homes. South African clean power companies will be working with SolarReserve, a California-based solar developer to build the project.
The cost will be around $260 million, but according to Google, South Africa has had high growth in clean energy investments in 2012 thanks to incentives that were encouraged up after an alarming energy shortage. This project will also provide 300 construction jobs and 50 operational jobs.
So far, Google has invested more than a billion dollars in clean energy projects worldwide, from solar panels to solar thermal to wind farms. As a company that consumes mountains of energy every year to keep its data centers going, and expanding, it’s smart to be investing in renewable energy for what will undoubtedly be an increasingly carbon-constrained world.
Image CC licensed by Steve Jurvetson: Googleplex in Silicon Valley blanketed in solar panels.
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