Google have announced that, in 2017, all of its data centres around the world will be entirely powered with renewable energy sources, mainly from wind farms and solar panels.
Google have announced that, in 2017, all of its data centres around the world will be entirely powered with renewable energy sources.
That is not to say that wind and solar will be all that Google will be operating on. Like everyone, Google gets its power from a power company, which operates an energy grid typically supplied by different source like hydroelectric dams, natural gas, coal and wind power.
However, what Google have been doing that others haven’t is negotiate large-scale deals with renewable energy producers, typically guaranteeing to buy the energy they produce with their wind turbines and solar cells. With these guarantees, these companies can then obtain bank financing to build more turbines.
The power created by the renewables is plugged into the utility grid that Google source their power from so that their usage presents no net consumption of fossil fuels and the pool of electricity gets a relatively larger share of renewable sources.
“We are the largest corporate purchaser of renewable energy in the world,” said Joe Kava, senior vice president of technical infrastructure at Google. “It’s good for the economy, good for business and good for our shareholders.”
Although Google have their critics, with some saying the move is merely a PR stunt, the signs towards such a monolithic corporation moving towards renewable energy is a promising one.
Read the full story via the New York Times.
