
Google Pumps $2B into Africa’s Biggest Wind Power Project - geezsundries
http://www.wired.com/2015/10/google-pumps-2b-into-africas-biggest-wind-power-project/
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ck2
Very surprised to read google doesn't have a single datacenter in Africa.

The continent is huge and if latency is important, they would definitely need
multiple locations there.

check this out for scale
[http://kai.sub.blue/en/africa.html](http://kai.sub.blue/en/africa.html)

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vezycash
The reason is simple. Basic network capacity is underdeveloped. Radio waves
account for the bulk of communication. And most importantly, there's little to
no direct connection between neighboring countries. So even if Google built a
datacenter in Africa, it would not solve latency issues and might even make it
worse because virtually all requests go outside of the continent.

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sdenton4
Political stability is also a potential issue. If you're putting K-hundred-
million dollars into a top-rate data center, risks associated with political
instability become hard to stomach. Kenya is a great place to work, and quite
open to outside investment, but had major problems two elections back, a scare
at the last election, and ongoing problems with al-shabab. One of the best
places to work in SSA, and still doesn't feel all that stable.

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skrebbel
But if you put K-hundred-million dollars into a wind park, that problem goes
away?

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ZeroGravitas
I think they've corrected the headline to remove the 2 billion figure.

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cademetz
Yes, $2 billion figure is incorrect. Google's total investment in clean energy
projects exceeds $2bn.

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giarc
But it's not $2 billion into that specific wind project, as the title implies.

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gopowerranger
But I read here and on reddit that Google is evil.

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dogma1138
Lockheed Martin invests billions each year in clean energy development also,
doesn't mean that some people won't take offense with their other activities.

