Google Intends to Invest in Offshore Wind Hub

Apparently the well known search giant Google is intending to invest in a 6GW offshore wind hub in the mid-Atlantic. Google has signed up to finance a sub sea cable network off America’s mid-Atlantic coast. This is designed to help offshore wind developers connect 6GW of energy to the United States grid.

This big search giant went on to confirm just this week that it has agreed to invest 37.5 percent of the quality in the initial development stage of the Atlantic Wind Connection transmission project. If this is actually built, it will stretch 350 miles along the eastern seaboard from New Jersey to Virginia.

Although Google did not specify how much the deal is actually worth, the entire project is reportedly valued at about $6.09 billion. This makes Google’s shares worth around $2.28 billion.

Google’s green business operations director, Rick Needham, said that the new infrastructure will be crucial to accelerate the development of offshore wind energy in the mid-Atlantic region. This is an area that has relatively shallow waters that extend miles out to sea.

These shallow waters are going to make it a lot easier to install turbines 10 to 15 miles offshore. This means that the wind projects can take advantage of stronger winds that would not be found onshore.

Rick went on to say that the Atlantic Wind Connection backbone is critical to more rapidly scaling up offshore wind, because without it offshore wind developers would be forced to build individual radial transmission lines from each offshore wind project to shore. This would require a lot of additional time. It would also make balancing the grid more difficult.