Google, Marubeni to Lay Cables for U.S. Wind Farm Plan

Google will buy a 37.5 percent stake in the development stage of the Atlantic Wind Connection project, said Rick Needham, director of green business operations at the Mountain View, California-based Internet company. The new transmission line would form the “backbone” of a Mid-Atlantic offshore wind industry that could add 6,000 megawatts of capacity to the grid, Needham said.

The large-scale development of wind farms off the U.S. East Coast may create as many as 212,000 jobs, the project’s developers, including Google, Trans-Elect Development Co., Good Energies Inc. and Tokyo-based Marubeni Corp., said in a statement.

The project, called the “Atlantic Wind Connection,” is needed to lower the cost of sending electricity from offshore wind turbines to the power grid, Bob Mitchell, chief executive officer of Trans-Elect, told reporters.

“There will be no offshore wind industry in this country if we as a team are not successful,” Mitchell said of the project.

The transmission line is to extend from New Jersey to Virginia, Mitchell said in a telephone interview.