Google Makes Biggest Corporate Purchase of Renewable Energy
Google’s clean energy purchase of 842 megawatts is the largest ever by a non-utility company.
Google’s clean energy purchase up till now had been around 1.2 gigawatts around the world. By adding an additional 842 megawatts (.842 gigawatts) of capacity, brings its total to an impressive 2 gigawatts from clean energy.
Michael Terrell, who leads energy policy and market strategy for Google’s global infrastructure team said “These are global deals on 3 continents, 6 deals in total, in the U.S. and Chile and Sweden,”. The company has pledged to triple its purchases of renewable energy by 2025, and the new announcement already moves it a considerable way in that direction.
With signing global “power purchase agreements”, Google’s ultimate goal is to power everything that it does with clean energy from solar and wind. Including its data centres, which power your Google searches, e-mails, and more are increasingly powered by solar and wind.
Google’s clean energy purchase contracts range from 10 to 20 years, which it hopes will foster more widespread adoption and help the power providers expand their facilities. The company says it’s 37 percent of the way to its goal of tripling its clean energy and using it solely to power its services.
Google is not the only company buying clean energy. In the last several years, major purchases have also been announced by Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, and Ikea among others.
“Google’s clean energy purchase has helped spark a race among global IT companies to build a renewably-powered internet, and shows how companies can help lead the way to a 100 percent renewable energy future,” said Gary Cook, chief IT analyst at Greenpeace, in a statement.
“Renewable electricity from large-scale, off-site projects has become attractive both economically (competitive prices can be locked in for up to 20 years) and for corporate sustainability”.
“We’re going to get renewable energy any way we can, no matter what it takes,” said Terrell.
In the meantime, the Australian Government still has a number of subsidies available through RET program (read more about it here) make sure you get your renewable energy the best possible way you can at the best possible price.
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