Search giant Google is continuing its push into the renewable energy sector with a direct investment into two wind farms capable of generating power for more than 55,000 homes.

In a blog post this week, Google green business operations manager Rick Needham said that the investment in the 169.5 megwatt wind farms in North Dakota is part of a wider policy to invest and support renewable energy. “Through this $38.8 million (£25.5m) investment, we’re aiming to accelerate the deployment of renewable energy — in a way that makes good business sense, too,” said Needham.

Adjustable blades

The wind farms use the latest turbine technology which allows the blades to change their angle of pitch to increase efficiency, according to Needham. “The turbines can continuously adjust the individual blade pitch angles to achieve optimal efficiency and use larger blades with 15 percent more swept area than earlier generations, allowing capture of even more wind energy for each turbine,” he said. “The control systems for these wind farms are also advanced and dynamic, allowing for remote 24/7 monitoring and operation to ensure maximum turbine up-time and power production.”

According to Google, it is planning to make similar investments in renewable tech in the future. “We look forward to finding more opportunities to invest in renewable energy projects that use the latest technologies to push the envelope for delivering low cost clean energy,” said Needham. “We’ll let you know what we find.”

Figures from the American Wind Energy Association put North Dakota at the top of places to site wind farms in the US with approx 1,210 billions of kWh per year. “North Dakota alone is theoretically capable (if there were enough transmission capacity) of producing enough wind-generated power to meet more than fourth of U.S. electricity demand,” the AWEA states.

Worldwide wind power investment

In the UK, BT has made noises about making similar investments in wind power including plans to generate 250MW of its own electricity through wind farms, as part of a £250 million plan to cut its carbon footprint. However the company said last year that the plan would be uneconomic under proposed carbon accounting rules due to come into force by 2012, and could be cancelled.

Late last year ISP and hosting company Other World Computing (OWC) become the first US data centre operator to run its operation entirely on wind power. The 131-foot on-site wind turbine was erected on 19 October, and has since been providing all the electrical power for its facility in Woodstock, Illinois.