Google’s Search for Greener Energy Continues

Google Inc. has announced that it has signed its seventh (and largest) renewable energy contract, this one tied to wind-powered generators belonging to MidAmerican Energy of Des Moines. The announcement was carefully timed to coincide with Earth Day and will deliver 407 megawatts of electricity to power Google’s data centre in Council Bluffs, Iowa, United States.

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Who are the players here?

Google (surely everyone has heard of it??) is an American multinational corporation founded in the mid 1990s and specialising in Internet-related services and products, such as advertising technologies, search, cloud computing and software.

Google has an impressive track record of financing renewable energy and has invested more than $1 billion in 15 projects around the world in an effort to promote wider use of clean power. Google are attempting to power the company with no less than 100% renewable energy and invest in accelerating green power across the world. At the moment they power just over a third of their company with renewable energy, but that is due to increase now. This latest announcement is part of their policy to buy renewable energy from their utility providers and wind farms near their data centres- aiming a promoting a “greener grid”.

MidAmerican Energy is a power company based in Des Moines, Iowa. It was formed, following a merger of other companies, in 1995. It serves two thirds of the state of Iowa plus parts of Illinois, South Dakota and Nebraska.

 

This latest agreement fully supplies the first phase of Google’s facilities in Council Bluffs with renewable energy.

Under the agreement, Google will pay a premium for renewable energy certificates that are tied to electricity generated by MidAmerican Energy. The program is due to generate up to 1,050 megawatts of power by the end of next year. The energy credits are then retired, in effect replacing the equivalent electricity generated by non-renewable sources and reducing carbon dioxide emissions.

The construction of Google’s Data Centre in Iowa began in 2007 partly because of the potential of renewable energy in the state. Google said its renewable energy agreements now total more than 1,000 megawatts.

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Gary Demasi, (pictured above) is the director of global infrastructure for Google. He said the company hopes the agreement-

“will inspire all of our utilities to work with us in finding ways to increase the supply of clean power.”

Google said it adopted a commitment to carbon neutrality in 2007 and has made more than $1 billion in 15 renewable energy investments worldwide.

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Google, along with Facebook Inc., Apple Inc., Intel and other companies, are buying buying power from renewable energy projects to curb greenhouse-gas emissions. Google has agreed to buy more than a gigawatt of clean power. It should be noted that Data Centres are significant consumers of electricity.

To date Google’s Green Energy drive has included the following investments and projects:

  • SunPower: investing in residential solar
  • Panhandle 2 Wind Farm: financing wind in Texas
  • Recurrent Energy: solar facilities in California and Arizona
  • Mount Signal Solar: financing solar in California
  • Jasper Power Project: investing in South African solar
  • Spinning Spur Wind Farm: investing in West Texas wind
  • Rippey Wind Farm: financing wind power in Iowa
  • Recurrent Energy: large scale photovoltaic (PV) projects in California
  • Clean Power Finance: financing for rooftop solar
  • SolarCity: solar for thousands of residential rooftops
  • BrightSource: concentrated solar power at scale
  • Atlantic Wind Connection: a superhighway for clean energy transmission
  • Alta Wind Energy Centre: harnessing winds of the Mojave
  • Shepherd’s Flat: one of the world’s largest wind farms
  • Peace Garden Wind Farms: opening up more financing for wind
  • Photovoltaics in Germany: investing in clean energy overseas