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Google announced it would spend $103 million (Rs 630 crore) to buy a chunk of a solar farm in California. Incidentally, this investment would take Google’s total spends on clean energy beyond the $1-billion mark. Walmart did not have to go to solar farms. The retail giant has one resource needed for solar plants: it has 89 MW of solar power plants, mounted on 215 rooftops. These are but two, marquee examples of a growing number of non-energy companies that are getting into solar energy worldwide. Their collective message is clear: solar makes economic sense. Korean conglomerate Samsung wants to put up a 300-MW solar plant in Ontario, Canada (doesn’t count here, because that means Samsung getting into the energy business.) In 2012, French carmaker Renault completed six solar rooftop plants in France, totalling 59 MW. The Solar Energy Industries Association, a body of American companies, came out with the second edition of its annual report, ‘Solar Means Business’, in which it named the 25 (non-energy) companies that had put up solar projects.