Google’s data center in Eemshaven, The Netherlands.
In 2017, Google announced that it was on track to purchase enough renewable energy to match the electricity that it consumed over the next year. According to a blog posting from Urs Hölzle, Google’s senior vice president for technical infrastructure, Google has officially met its goal.
Google’s total purchase of energy, including from sources such as wind and solar, exceeded the amount of electricity used by the company’s worldwide operations around the world. To date, its renewable energy contracts have led to over $3 billion in new capital investment around the world.
Hölzle wrote: “What do we mean by ‘matching’ renewable energy? Over the course of 2017, across the globe, for every kilowatt hour of electricity we consumed, we purchased a kilowatt hour of renewable energy from a wind or solar farm that was built specifically for Google. This makes us the first public Cloud, and company of our size, to have achieved this feat.”
Google currently has contracts to buy 3 GW of renewable energy, representing more than any other corporate renewables purchaser. The company plans to build more data centers and offices globally, and expects to keep signing more renewable energy contracts.
Read the full blog entry here.
Filed Under: News, Projects
