In that same month, Google Energy, a subsidiary of Google, received the go ahead from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to buy and sell energy at market rates, as if it were a utility company.
The Ivanpah investment, along with other recent investments by Google into clean energy, seems to indicate that the company is at least considering a move into the energy space.
Previous clean energy investments by Google include eSolar Inc, which builds Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) plants, as well as AltaRock Energy and Potter Drilling, which use various techniques to optimize and develop geothermal energy sources.
As with earlier investments in clean energy, Google has a horse in this race.
Dan Reicher, former director of climate change and energy at Google, raised this issue during an EnergyBiz conference.
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"We have gained expertise in building data centers, but just providing energy for Google isn't enough of a goal, " co-founder Larry Page said at a press conference.
Closer to the metering project's goal of reducing energy use, Google.org is active in a project it calls "REC, " with a stated goal of producing renewable energy for less than the cost of carbon fuels.
By effectively managing its energy costs, Google can save a bundle on powering its data centers.
Google said its "Renewable Energy Cheaper Than Coal" initiative will focus initially on solar thermal power, wind power technologies, geothermal systems and other technologies.
Google has invested directly in renewable energy projects, such as the 370-megawatt Ivanpah solar thermal power plant now under construction in California.
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"We believe the time has come for Congress to move quickly to enact national RPS legislation, " said the letter signed by General Electric, Google, Shell's wind energy division, BP America and the Sierra Club, among others.
Google, which uses enormous amounts of energy to power its data centers, locates those parts of the business in areas like Washington's Columbia River hydroelectric grid, where juice is cheap.
Figures such as Nobel Laureate and former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency Mohammed ElBaradei or Google executive Wael Ghonim have been raised by the crowds as possible leaders, but none of them have converted popularity into political capital.
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Sosnoff owns personally and Atalanta Sosnoff Capital owns for clients the following stocks cited in this commentary: Exxon Mobil, Schlumberger, Apache, ConocoPhillips, Chevron, Peabody Energy, Arch Coal, Google, Apple, IBM, Oracle, Hewlett-Packard, EMC, NetApp, Red Hat, JPMorgan Chase, Ford Motor, General Motors, United Healthcare, Wellpoint, Citigroup and Bank of America.
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The clean energy investments are part of an ongoing initiative at Google to develop renewable power sources that are less expensive than coal, with the goal of converting entirely to clean energy by 2030.
House Republicans on the Energy and Commerce Committee have questioned Google and Apple on consumer privacy issues.
In addition to improving the world with PowerMeter, Google also might soften criticisms of its own dramatic energy use.
Google, for instance, publicly lists its renewable energy holdings as well as its carbon footprint that it wants to reduce to zero.
"It's a big resource, it's got a good cost curve, and it's not getting enough attention, " says Dan W. Reicher, Google.org's director of climate and energy initiatives.
The portfolio of projects, financed by debt and equity including an undisclosed, significant investment by Google in a venture formed by KKR, SunTap Energy, will include four solar photovoltaic facilities.
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As I noted last week, Google has been ramping up its spending in the clean energy space, after receiving permission from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to buy and sell energy at market rates.
Google, Cisco and Microsoft all killed well-publicized home energy efforts this year.
It is part of Google.org's effort to help bring about renewable energy that is cheaper than coal by investing in companies, research and policy development.
But the environmental group, which has pressured tech giants like Google, Apple and Facebook to power their clouds with clean energy, also took the opportunity to take a swipe at Microsoft, which was slammed in The New York Times series for its data center practices.
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Google (GOOG), Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR) and Recurrent Energy said today they have invested in a portfolio of solar photovoltaic facilities in Sacramento.
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The type and energy costs of the infrastructure are closely guarded trade secrets of Google as that is how they gain a competitive advantage.
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Google thought big when it aimed to reduce accidents, the time and energy wasted in traffic, and the number of cars on the road by 90 percent.
Who would risk capital, energy, and talent in building a new image search engine when Google presents Google Image Search results automatically?
Google is being ruthless at closing down those things that do not work, saving energy and resources to put behind those that do.
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