The tech giant Google is by far the biggest supporter of green energy. To date, the company has invested in numerous projects, from producing biofuels, investing in wind power and solar projects, all the way to exploring geothermal power resources.
And just when we thought that their biggest investment in renewables has already been made, they announced a new deal, one that could completely transform the lives of millions of homeowners across the U.S.. Google, together with SunPower Corporation, a manufacturer of solar cells, will now be providing affordable solar panel lease to everyone, who is willing to switch to solar but has found it too expensive to do so.
The total cost of the initiative is $250 million, $100 million coming from Google, and the remaining from their partner SunPower. This is by far the biggest renewable energy purchase that Google has made, bringing the total number of renewable energy projects in which the company is involved in up to 16. Out of all possible solar panel manufacturers that Google could have teamed up with, they chose the one with a known reputation of making solar panels that are very high in quality and reliability, have incredible performance and degrade very slowly with time.
This is not the first solar leasing program that is around. In the past few years, many companies have provided such service to American house owners, who have already decided to switch to solar, but have not been able to pay the full amount upfront. Unfortunately, in many cases the lease agreements are signed for a period of 10 to 15 years, and only after this time is up, the customers are able to buy the system that they have installed.
Google and SunPower, however, decided to take a much more customer-friendly approach. Although the lease terms can be signed for a long period, the homeowners will have the option to pay off the remaining amount after only 6 years. According to both partners, this will stimulate even more people to make that important step, and start using clean energy.
Image (c) Google Blog
