Google makes big clean energy purchase to power data centers
Mountain View says its purchase of 842 megawatts is the largest ever by a non-utility company.
Powering Google's online empire takes a lot of energy, and the company wants to use all clean sources to run its data centers by 2025. The company announced the next step towards that milestone today with word that it purchased 842 megawatts of renewable energy on three continents. The purchase includes solar and wind power in locales that range from North Carolina to Chile and Sweden, doubling what it had bought so far. Google says today's announcement is the largest purchase of clean energy by a non-utility company ever.
With the new agreements, Mountain View signed contracts with the energy companies that range from 10 to 20 years, which it hopes will foster more widespread adoption and help the power providers expand their facilities. The purchase also brings Google's renewable energy total to two gigawatts, or as Wired puts it, enough to power all of the homes in San Francisco... twice. 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.That process includes $2.5 million in investments at 22 renewable energy projects in places like Germany, Kansas and Kenya.
[Image credit: Getty]
