Energy: Betting the wind farm

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Google is investing $75 million in an Iowa wind farm as part of its effort to encourage development of cleaner energy sources. The deal announced Thursday gives Google Inc. a stake in the Ropey Wind Farm in Greene County, Iowa. RPM Access LLC is the primary owner. The wind farm is located about 130 miles northeast of Council Bluffs, Iowa, which is home to one the eight data centers that power Google’s Internet search engine and other services. The Iowa data center won’t be getting power from the wind farm.

Kenya’s rapid economic growth is is causing its electricity demand to grow at about 14% per year. The country is heavily reliant on fossil fuel imports, but wants to develop a broad range of renewable energy sources to help the government achieve its target of 2 GW of electricity from renewable sources by 2013. Nearly half of the country’s energy demands are already produced from hydroelectricity, but there are plans to invest in solar and wind projects in order to further reduce the reliance on imported fossil fuels.

By John Hall:Warren Buffett-controlled MidAmerican Energy Holdings announced that it has established a new business arm as a conduit for a deepening of the company's move into the unregulated renewables market. The new vehicle, MidAmerican Renewables, LLC, will oversee wind, geothermal, solar and hydro projects to produce energy for the renewables market.

SeaEnergy (LON:SEA) , the group behind plans to cash in on wind farm developments off the coast of the UK, has agreed a deal to sell its SeaEnergy Renewables Ltd (SERL) division to Spanish energy group Repsol for an enterprise value of £50 million. Shares in the AIM listed company responded by plunging 28.25p to 41.25p during the first hour of trading as investors weighed up whether boss Steve Remp had achieved a decent price for the business. SeaEnergy was set up three years ago and went on to win three UK licences with partner group EDP Renováveis to build wind farms.

Thomas Smicklas submits:Ignacio Galan, chief executive of the Spain-based energy group Iberdrola (IBDRY.PK), was quoted in the Financial Times on May 23 as stating that the rise in United States shale gas production has transformed the country's power-generating industry, driving down gas and electricity prices: "Shale gas makes the production of electricity from other sources not attractive enough." This b

Duke Energy has announced its intention to build a large-scale wind farm in Willacy County. When the 200-megawatt facility comes online, it will generate enough electricity to power roughly 60,000 homes. Duke Energy’s Los Vientos I wind power project, roughly 20 miles inland from the Gulf of Mexico, will sell its electricity to San Antonio-based CPS Energy, the nation’s largest municipally owned energy utility. Duke Energy Renewables will start construction later this year and bring the project online by December 2012, The Brownsville Herald reported.

Greentech Media submits: By Herman K. Trabish