Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) has announced it will provide USD $145 million in equity financing for SunEdison, Inc.’s (NYSE: SUNE) Regulus solar plant.
The 82 MW Regulus solar project in Kern County, California will be SunEdison’s largest North American solar farm and is expected to commence operations later this year.
While TerraForm Power is the the owner of the system, Terraform is majority owned by SunEdison. Operation and maintenance for the system will be performed by the SunEdison Renewable Operation Center (ROC)
“From developing the technology, to constructing the facility, to establishing mutually beneficial financial partnerships with leaders like Google, Prudential and Santander Bank, N.A., Regulus is a prime example of how SunEdison’s end-to-end approach benefits everyone involved in a solar project,” said Bob Powell, president, North America at SunEdison.
Google’s investment is the latest in a series of renewable energy projects it has supported – a total of $1.5 billion in projects across three continents with a total planned capacity of more than 2.5 GW
“We believe the world needs a wide range of clean energy technologies, each serving different needs,” said Nick Coons, renewable energy principal at Google. “This project with SunEdison presented an opportunity to take an old gas and oil field and turn it into a clean energy producing solar site. It made sense to support it on multiple levels.”
Other Google-backed projects include.
– Mount Signal Solar project
– Makani Airborne Wind Turbine
– Alta Wind Energy Center
– a solar farm in Germany
– Atlantic Wind Connection
– a 114 megawatt wind farm in Iowa
– a USD$280 million fund to finance residential solar power installations.
– $75 million in Clean Power Finance
– Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System
– Shepherds Flat Wind Farm in Oregon
– Two wind farms in North Dakota
– $94 million in a portfolio of four solar farms in California
– Jasper Power Project
For SunEdison, the announcement adds to the list of other recently announced high profile projects from the company; including its 69.5 megawatt Javiera solar project supplying a mine in Chile with clean power; two new California State solar facilities totaling 3.22 megawatts and closer to home, securing backing from Australia’s Clean Energy Finance Corporation for new programs to boost uptake of residential and commercial solar power in Australia.
Bloomberg has described SunEdison as the best-performing solar company this year.
