More
renewable energy for our
data centers
We an**unced our
commitment to carbon neutrality back in 2007, and since then we’ve been finding ways to
power our operations with as much
renewable energy as possible. In our latest step toward this end, we just signed an agreement with the Grand River Dam Authority (GRDA) to green the
energy supply to our
Oklahoma data center with 48 MW of wind
energy from the Canadian Hills Wind Project in Oklahoma, which is expected to come online later this year.
We’ve been working with GRDA, our local utility, to procure additional
renewable energy since we “plugged in” our
data center in 2011, and in February of 2012, GRDA approached us about purchasing power from Canadian Hills. In conjunction with the electricity GRDA already supplies Google to operate its
data center, Google will pay GRDA a premium to purchase
renewable energy generated by Canadian Hills. This brings the total amount of
renewable energy for which Google has contracted to over 260 MW.
This agreement is a milestone for GRDA because it’s their first-ever wind
energy project. It’s also a milestone for Google because it’s a little different from the previous Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs)
we’ve signed, where we agreed to buy the
energy directly from the developer who built the wind farm. This agreement, by contrast, marks the first time we’ve partnered with a utility provider to increase the amount of
renewable energy powering one of our
data centers.
Although both options can make sense depending on the circumstances, we’re excited about this collaboration because it makes the most of our respective strengths: utilities like GRDA are best positioned to integrate
renewable energy into their generation mix and to deliver power; we’re a growing company with a corporate mandate to use clean
energy for our operations in a scalable way. We’ve been working closely with all of our utility partners to find ways to source renewables directly, and we look forward to working with other suppliers to deliver clean
energy to our
data centers.
Posted by Gary Demasi, Director, Global Infrastructure team
More renewable energy for our data centers
09-30-2012, 06:29 AM
More renewable energy for our data centers
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