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Search engine giant Google made good on its promise to invest in clean-technology projects, announcing Monday that it invested $38.8 million in a North Dakota wind farm.

The company has promised for months it would put money behind its advocacy of alternative energy and green development. The investment, completed Friday, is Google’s first in a utility-scale renewable energy project, thought the company has invested in green-tech start-ups.

Google invests $38,8 million in a North Dakota NextEra Energy Resources wind farm

In a blog post, the company said the 169.5 MW project stood out because it uses some of the latest wind turbine technology and control systems to lower the cost of generating renewable power. The turbines on the NextEra Energy Resources farm continuously adjust their blade angles to more efficiently turn wind into electricity, and larger blades sweep an area that is 15 percent bigger than with earlier models.

The farm has 113 turbines that stand 262 feet high.

“We’ve been looking at investments in renewable energy projects, like the one we just signed, that can accelerate the deployment of the latest clean energy technology while providing attractive returns to Google and more capital for developers to build additional projects,” said Rick Needham, green business operations manager in the blog post.

Google has previously invested in clean-tech companies including eSolar and AltaRock.

The news from Google came as NextEra said it sold $190 million in equity in the farm so it could pay down debt.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 3rd, 2010 at 12:22 pm and is filed under news. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.