Google investing $55 million in Southern California wind project

Google (GOOG) is investing $55 million in a project to build windturbines in Southern California's Tehachapi Mountains, the MountainView Internet company announced today.

According to a post on the Google Green blog, developer Terra-Gen Power is constructing the Alta Wind Energy Center in phases. Theproject eventually will generate 1,500 megawatts of power, or enoughenergy for 450,000 homes, according to the post.

It's just the latest in a recent string of investments by Googlein wind power and other alternative generation technologies.

Last week, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approvedinvestment incentives for a Google-backed project to build a $5billion undersea power line for wind farms along the Atlantic coast.That project is still awaiting building permits from federal andstate regulators.

In April, the search giant announced it had signed a $100million, 20-year deal to buy 100 megawatts of power from a new windfarm in Oklahoma, where Google is building a data center.

"We see a real need to transform the electrical grid over time,"Bill Weihl, Google's clean-energy czar, said then.

Data centers such as Google's are estimated to consume about 3percent of all electricity used in the United States by the end ofthis year, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, ata cost of about $9 billion.

Last summer, the company created Google Energy in December to buyclean power and resell it to wholesalers. Banking giant Citi hasprovided $55 million in financing for the Alta Wind project, whichcurrently has the capacity to provide 720 megawatts of power toutility Southern California Edison.

"While Google won't be purchasing the electricity from thisproject," Rick Needham, Google's director of green businessoperations wrote in the blog post, the wind turbines "will helpCalifornia meet its ambitious renewable portfolio standard of 33percent clean power by 2020. The whole site will boost California'swind generation by 30 percent."

According to the post, Google and Citi are purchasing one of theproject phases, then leasing it back to Terra-Gen.

"We are delighted to have Citi and Google as important investorsand welcome their participation in the Alta Wind Energy Center,"Terra-Gen Power CEO Jim Pagano said in a news release.

Contact Frank Russell at 408-920-5876. Follow him at Twitter.com/mercspike.