Businesses See Sense in Wind Power Investment

A few weeks ago the Scandinavian home furnishing colossus, Ikea, announced plans to build a wind farm on property it owns in Illinois. This is just one example of how shrewd businesses are using green energy sources such as solar and wind power to reduce running costs and add to their profits. Oh and of course it also helps protect the environment from the polluting effects of traditional power sources for all of us. Interestingly, the Ikea wind farm is too far from Ikea’s business locations to directly benefit them. They use solar power. But instead, the wind energy harvested by the turbines is sold on the open market to offset its energy costs. The Ikea wind farm (pictured below) generates sufficient electricity to power 34,000 homes.

 

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At the moment crude oil prices are escalating, so many companies are realising it makes good green and economic sense to invest in wind and solar power. On April 23, Google announced it signed a deal with MidAmerican Energy to power its Iowa data centre with 407 megawatts of renewable wind energy.

Sam Aarons, Google’s head of energy strategy said:

“… it’s not just our own operations we want to green: Google has also invested over $1 billion in 15 renewable energy investments around the world, in an effort to put more renewable energy on the grid and reduce global greenhouse gas emissions.”

Remember that at the end of last year n late 2013, Facebook announced that its newly acquired data centre in Iowa would be powered completely by energy from a wind farm located nearby. Other giants are getting on board with green energy; Microsoft and Starbucks are also investing in wind energy as protection against the unpredictability of fossil fuel price fluctuations.

All these moves are proof that big businesses are waking up to the investment opportunities that lie within the realm of renewable energy, such as wind and solar power.

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Solar, wind and geothermal production are expected to double over the next 25 years, according to the Energy Information Administration’s recent report. Clean energy will account for 33% of all U.S. electricity generation by 2016 – which is up from 16% today, according to the same report.

Today U.S. wind power by itself accounts for just over 4% of U.S. electricity (enough to power an equivalent of 15.5 million homes). The American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) reports that the country’s land and offshore wind energy potential could provide enough electricity to power it 13 times over. Wow!

The Global Wind Energy Council expects wind energy growth to accelerate worldwide over the next several years, with most emanating from emerging markets.