The announcement comes just days after Google revealed it was buying a minority stake in a solar farm outside of Berlin, Germany, and a month after its investment arm, Google Ventures, announced it is backing a growing biomass firm.
The new project is being undertaken in cooperation with Brightsource Energy, according to Google’s official blog.
Dubbed the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System, the new solar tower will be the largest in the world. Standing approximately 450 feet tall, the new tower will use 173,000 heliostats (like the mirrors pictured above) to generate energy.
The two companies hope to generate 392 gross MW of solar power at the facility, or "the equivalent of taking more than 90,000 cars off the road over the [25 year] lifetime of the plant," the blog said.
This latest investment by Google is also its largest to date in the renewable energy sector, and brings its total clean-energy investments worldwide to $250 million.
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