The Iowa wind farm — called the Rippey Wind Farm and located in Greene County — is owned by RPM Access and its 20 turbines are already online, with a capacity to produce 50 MW of wind power (enough to power 15,000 homes). The power will be bought by Central Iowa Power Cooperative (CIPCO).

Google has a data center in Council Bluffs, Iowa, and has already invested in other clean power projects in the region as well, including agreeing to buy power through a power purchase agreement from a 114 MW wind farm in Iowa owned by NextEra Energy Resources. Google is investing in clean power projects because it wants to use more clean power for its data centers — the search engine giant plans to have about a third of the power for its data centers come directly from clean power.

Once Google invests in a clean power project, its a tricky move to actually get that power used directly for its data center. Google has often said that it’s making these investments partly to get a return over time on the investment. But a couple months ago, for the first time, Google said it will buy clean energy from a utility in Oklahoma to directly power one of its data centers in Oklahoma.

Here’s some of Google’s clean power investments:

Here are most of Google’s clean power investments to date:

• SolarCity rooftop solar fund. Google has created a $280 million fund with home solar installer SolarCity. This is Google’s largest investment in clean power to date, and its first in home rooftop solar.
• Solar panel projects in Sacramento Calif: Google put $94 million into four solar panel projects, which are being built by Recurrent Energy close to Sacramento, Calif. This was Google’s first investment in utility-scale grid-connected solar panel projects.
• Buying wind power from a utility directly to power a data center in Oklahoma: For the first time in September 2012, Google said it would buy clean energy from a utility to directly power one of its data centers in Oklahoma.
• Clean Power Finance. Google invested $75 million into a solar fund for startup Clean Power Finance. Clean Power Finance will use the money to support solar rooftop projects by third party installers.
• The world’s largest wind farm — in Oregon. Google is investing $100 million in the world’s largest wind farm, the 845 MW Shepherds Flat project under construction in Oregon.
• North Dakota wind farm. Google is investing $38.8 million into 169.5 MW worth of wind projects developed by NextEra Energy Resources in North Dakota.
• East Coast wind farm backbone. Google has invested part of the fund for an East Coast transmission line that is meant to link offshore wind farms, and which recently got an approved rate of return for the project at 12.59 percent.
• Wind power from Iowa wind farm. Google’s first deal for its subsidiary Google Energy — which can buy and sell power on the wholesale electricity markets — plans to buy wind power from 114 MW of wind energy via a wind farm in Iowa owned by NextEra Energy Resources.
• Wind power from Oklahoma wind farm. Google’s second deal via its subsidiary Google Energy is to buy 100 MW of power from a wind farm that’s under construction in Oklahoma by NextEra Energy Resources.
• BrightSource’s solar thermal project. Google invested $168 million into a solar thermal project being built by startup BrightSource Energy in California’s Mojave Desert.
• German solar project. Google is investing €3.5 million ($5 million USD) into a solar photovoltaic farm in Brandenburg an der Havel, Germany, which is near Berlin.
• Greentech startups (these are small investments). Google (through a combo of Google Ventures and Google.org) has invested in at least nine “greentech” startups, including battery maker ActaCell, electric vehicle maker Aptera, efficient car maker Next Autoworks, geothermal company Alta Rock, neighbor-to-neighbor car sharing company RelayRides, weather insurance company WeatherBill, smart grid company Silver Spring Networks, biofuel maker Cool Planet Biofuels, and efficient power gear conversion tech startup Transphorm.

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If you remember back four years ago — when clean power, cleantech and the potential for carbon policy in the U.S. was hitting a peak — Pickens announced to the world that he planned to kick off the world’s largest wind farm in Texas. It was part of his Pickens Plan to make the U.S. energy independent, and he even bought 500 turbines from GE to build the farm. But then the recession hit hard in late 2008, the Texas wind farm struggled to get the proper transmission lines permitted, and natural gas started on its downward spiral in price, making clean power less attractive to investors.

In the spring of 2010, Picken’s decided to move the planned wind farm up north to Minnesota. The project was originally going to see 334 turbines land in Goodhue, Minnesota, creating a 78 MW wind farm, according to local Minnesota media back then. However, in recent years the wind farm plan had clearly gotten much smaller in scale, and is now reportedly a 50-turbine wind farm, estimated to cost $180 million.

Despite that Pickens has finally sold off his stake in the project, the owner of the wind farm, now called New Era Wind Farm, says he’s still try to get it built. The project is reportedly controversial in the area because of “concerns about potential noise and unpleasant shadows from spinning blades,” as well as “threats to protected eagles and bats that might hit the blades.”

Pickens still seems bullish on natural gas, particularly natural gas for transportation. Last year he was working on a bill that would help provide incentives for natural gas for transportation. Here’s a video interview I did with Pickens back in early 2011, and he told me back then that the wind part of his Pickens Plans was “on the shelf,” because of the low price of natural gas:

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While Pickens has spent millions buying headlines for his wind-powered Pickens Plan, B&B has quite a head-start. The company currently has five wind farms under construction, three of which are in Texas, with a total of 567.5 megawatts of capacity and a price tag of over $1 billion. When those projects are completed, B&B will own or manage 25 wind farms in the U.S. with a capacity of over 2,000 megawatts. The Majestic farm, scheduled for completion this year, is just down the road from Picken’s proposed 4,000 megawatt farm in Pampa, Texas. Will the farms share transmission access?

Both Pickens and B&B have been working with the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) — the body in charge of figuring how to connect the rich wind energy resources of west Texas to the power-thirsty urban centers in the east. Based on ERCOT’s report, the Public Utility Commission of Texas has selected a plan that is estimated to cost $4.93 billion and will accommodate 18,456 megawatts of wind power, plenty of space for many wind developers.

Now PUC is reviewing bids from transmission companies. B&B’s affiliate Tejas Transmission has proposed to plan, finance and construct approximately $1 billion worth of transmission lines. Pickens, meanwhile, has been pulling political strings for his $2 billion transmission proposal bundled with a $1.5 billion water pipeline.

B&B has already secured grid access for the Majestic projects on the existing SPP transmission grid to supply power to the Panhandle region. The company says that development of the 1,000 megawatt Panhandle Wind Project is ongoing and plans to have it coincide with the ERCOT transmission project. PUC is expected to designate transmission providers by late 2008.

Image courtesy of Babcock & Brown.

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