Google is making yet another attempt to further its much-trumpeted commitment to renewable energy. The search engine giant made an announcement on Tuesday that it has invested $75 million in Clean Power Finance. The main purpose for this investment is to create an initial fund, helping “up to” 3,000 residences convert to solar power. With this investment, Google boasts that it has now aggregated more than $850 million in clean power technology.
The working of Clean Power Finance is quite simple as was noted by the company in an official blog entry. It was stated that their “open platform” has been helpful for network of solar power installment specialists to connect with investors like Google. Financial incentives received by these installers, are beneficial to the customers too as the savings are thus passed on by these installers to the customers. This model is quite similar to SolarCity, which was Google’s first residential solar power investment recipient.
This resource helps installers in growing their business, while the homeowners get an opportunity to convert to a cleaner power source at an economical cost. Additionally, they would get continued services of the installers as they take care of system maintenance and performance. However, Google still retains ownership of the solar energy system itself as it would collect a monthly fee “at a price that’s often less than paying for energy from the grid.”
Google may not be the first investor with Clean Power Finance, but with without a doubt it is the most prominent of all. Google even predicted that solar future is bright and the company aims to have a bigger impact when it comes to adoption.
Google’s funding would help in many ways as a homeowner would be able to get a solar electricity system installed at their place with minimal or no money up front. A typical home system costs anywhere between $25,000 to $30,000. Google would charge a monthly fee for a defined time frame. However, the burden would still be eased of the homeowners as the fee would be same or less than what they would otherwise be paying their local utility for power.
The benefit for Google would be huge as it would earn an attractive return on its investment in two ways. Apart from the monthly fee it earns from homeowners, it will get the benefit of federal and state renewable energy subsidies. The subsidies on offer from the federal and state governments would help defray the cost to a noticeable extent.
For the branding, Google will not have its name anywhere. Instead, local installers will offer the financing deal under their own brands.
As compared to its previous investment for the same deed, this time Google has opted to come out and help small, local installers who would otherwise not be able to offer these financing plans. Nick Needham, Director of Green Business Operations at Google, said in an interview, “Cash sales (of solar panels) have been good, but once you add financing, sales can go through the roof.” He even noted that this can be seen as an opportunity to help the market grow significantly.