Google to invest $300 million in SolarCity

Google is investing $300 million in SolarCity, a residential solar system company in the US, which is backed by Elon Musk. This follows Google's earlier $280 million investment, which it made back in 2011. Solar energy isn't cheap, so SolarCity has a lot of upfront costs to look out for.

In order to combat this, the company plans to install solar panels on residential homes using Google's funding. Homeowners will then pay a monthly fee to SolarCity, rather than spending upwards of $30,000 or so to have a solar panel system installed.

SolarCity has created a $750 million fund for its projects, the largest ever for a residential solar system. Google has previously invested $280 million in to the company. The latest $300 million investment is Google's largest single investment to date.

In-fact, with this latest move, Google has now invested $1.5 billion in to renewable energy projects in total.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: Google seems to be investing heavily in renewable energy sources. However, this investment will help the company out with its taxes as Google can claim federal tax credits worth 30 per cent of the solar project's cost.

Source: Reuters

Become a Patron!