Google Invests In Solar While Internet Service Providers Expand

An investment by Google was recently announced which would allow more than 3,000 U.S. homeowners to have solar electricity systems on their homes. A fund is to be created with the $75 million dollar investment which can be used by solar installers to offer financing for the systems to their customers.

The systems, worth $30,000 would incur very little or no upfront cost to homeowners. Instead, the payment of a monthly fee would be required. But this fee would come in at either the same or less than what the homeowner would currently be paying to their utility company on a monthly basis.

Google doesn't appear too worried about getting a return on its investment, and for good reason. In addition to the monthly fee it receives from homeowners, the company will also benefit from state and federal governments who subsidize renewable energy projects.

Clean Power Finance is the company with which Google partnered to create the fund. Based in San Francisco, Clean Power Finance is responsible for the ability of many solar installation companies to offer financing to their customers. And although Google will have financed most of the solar installations, it is local companies who will offer the systems under their individual brands.

It is small local solar companies who will benefit from this latest investment, because many of them are currently unable to offer financing to their customers. Having the ability to offer financing will increase the likelihood of homeowners installing the systems, as the costs of such an undertaking are still too expensive for many, even after financial assistance to cut down on installation costs.

Anyone who thought Google was just a search engine may be surprised to learn that the company's investments in renewable energy have now reached $850 million. Google has invested in a project to enable the building of wind farms off the East coast, in addition to solar projects in the U.S. and Germany.

These multi-million dollar investments are well-placed, as they will expand the scale of renewable energy. And this expansion is much-needed in order for Google to fulfill its goal of purchasing and using renewable electricity to run its own data centers.

It has long been the Google's belief that any company, including internet service providers can earn their revenue without negatively impacting the environment. And it has proven this in spades, being able to offset its greenhouse gas emissions by partially or completely funding projects designed to remove them from the atmosphere.

The search engine leader has many innovative solutions for businesses, advertisers and site owners under its belt. Their range of products include tools for easier collaboration and communication such as Google docs, and cloud-based services that allow users to store important documents and project files on the world wide web.

By: Marvin Brooks

Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com

There's lots of expansion going on with search engines and internet service providers these days. And the latest about what's happening in the industry can always be accessed online.