Google works on electric vehicle charging, invests $100 mill

[Seal]

Google is making big moves into clean tech, first by plunging $100 million into the world’s biggest wind farm and then announcing plans to work on electric vehicle infrastructure.

On Tuesday, the Energy Department said it was teaming up with the Internet giant and others to help drivers find charging stations around the country.

Google will partner with the federal National Renewable Energy Laboratory to use Google Maps as a foundation to create an online database of all charging stations, to be used as a data source for GPS and mapping services.

The day before, Google said it had invested $100 million in the 845-megawatt Shepherds Flat Wind Farm under construction near Arlington, Ore.

The installation, developed by Caithness Energy with General Electric turbines, is set to finish in 2012. The power produced there will be sold to Southern California Edison.

So far, Google has invested more than $350 million in clean energy projects, including in a German photovoltaic plant as well as the BrightSource Ivanpah solar installation on the eastern edge of San Bernardino County.

em: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technol ... -farm.html