Verizon to spend $100 mn in green inititatives

Verizon Communications Inc will spend $100 million in an initiative that would see its facilities go greener with solar panels and fuel cells that would see it take a place in the big league with clean energy followers like Google and Yahoo.

The announcement would benefit California-based solar panel developer SunPower Corp, which would supply and install solar panels a dozen facilities of the company across five US states.

Another of the initiative's beneficiaries would be  Oregon-based fuel cell maker ClearEdge Power, which would supply and install hydrogen fuel cells at Verizon facilities in California, New Jersey and New York.

The company plans to spend a total 15 MW of clean power a year operating its facilities - or the equivalent of the power required for 6,000 homes.

The step would see a reduction in Verizon's carbon footprint by about 10,000 MT of carbon dioxide annually.

While solar panels would cut Verizon's carbon footprint, they would also serve as a back-up power source during outages due to weather conditions like Hurricane Sandy.

Fuel cells use a chemical reaction for producing electricity and heat, which allowed the electricity generation close to its point of consumption.

Meanwhile, Micihgan governor, Deval Patrick had set new goals for solar energy installations given that the state had state surpassed its clean energy goals four years early.

Massachusetts had installed 250 MW of  megawatts of solar power, which was enough electricity to supply 37,000 homes for a year.  The push for clean energy however does not stop there.

Governor Patrick's new goal is to reach 1,600 megawatts of solar energy by the year 2020 generating enough power for 240,000 homes per year.

The Patrick Administration had already implemented grants and rebates to utility companies, businesses, and residents that generated clean energy. The state had also see, the average cost of installation for solar panels fall 35 per cent and it was now a question of reliability.