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Google announced a $75 million equity stake in an Iowa wind farm on Thursday, bringing the company's total investment in renewable energy to "more than $990 million."
The wind farm is located in Rippey, a small town in Greene County, about an hour outside of Des Moines, according to a Google blog post. The project was developed by RPM access and is expected to provide power to more than 15,000 homes in the area via the Central Iowa Power Cooperative, a utility. Google operates a data center in Iowa and entered a long-term contract to purchase wind energy from NextEra Energy Resources' Story County II wind farm in 2010.
Google's total investment in renewable energy to date encompasses a mix of solar and wind projects including, most recently, a $94 million stake in four solar photovoltaic projects in Sacramento, Calif., built by Recurrent Energy. Google has also invested $157 million into two wind projects in the Mojave Desert and $100 million into Shepherd's Flat in Arlington, Ore.