Google – 100% Renewable

By Green Energy Times Staff

Google, the well-known provider of internet services, is now getting 100% of its electricity from renewable sources.

That might not mean much to a person who occasionally does a search or gets emails from Google. In terms of real energy usage, however, it is an enormous statement. Google may be the largest corporate buyer of electricity, at over 3,000 megawatts (MW). That is about 150% of what the two nuclear reactors at Indian Point produce when they are both operating at full power. It uses over twice as much renewable power as Amazon and four times as much as the United States Department of Defense.

World-wide investments by Google in power generating capacity have come to $3.5 billion. About two-thirds of that has been in the United States. Roughly 90% of Google’s investment has been in wind power, much of it in the Midwest.

Google got to 100% renewable status through its most recent power purchase agreements. The four contracts included two for wind farms in North Dakota, each of 98MW, belonging to Avangrid. There was also one wind farm of 200MW in Iowa, belonging to EDF, and one more of 114MW in Oklahoma, owned by GRDA.

Google has received a lot of press coverage because of its commitment to renewable energy and reducing its carbon footprint. The praise largely belongs to others, however, according to the tech giant. The push to renewable power came about because of the 60% to 80% drops in power from solar and wind facilities.

Google’s environment report can be seen at https://environment.google/.