Google introduced its greatest deal but to buy offshore wind vitality for its information facilities in Europe, signing energy buy agreements to help two new wind farms off the coast of the Netherlands.
It’s a part of Google’s plan to match all of its information heart electrical energy consumption with clear vitality era on a 24/7 foundation by 2030. To try this, the corporate might want to assist get extra renewable vitality, together with offshore wind, pulsing by energy grids the place it operates. It shared “the subsequent step” of that plan for Europe right this moment, the place it says it’s including greater than 700 megawatts of unpolluted vitality capability to the grid.
A lot of that new capability will come from the pair of recent offshore wind farms within the Netherlands, the place Google operates two of its 24 information facilities. The facility buy agreements are with the CrossWind and Ecowende consortia, that are joint ventures between vitality firms Shell and Eneco.
“It’s a part of Google’s plan to match all of its information heart electrical energy consumption with clear vitality era on a 24/7 foundation by 2030.”
Together with Google’s earlier energy buy agreements, the corporate says its Dutch information facilities can hit 90 % clear vitality this 12 months. Google additionally introduced smaller offers to buy renewable vitality from onshore wind and photo voltaic farms in Italy, Poland, and Belgium.
Remember that Google’s plans are to match its electrical energy use with carbon-free vitality purchases. It’s not as if the information facilities themselves will run solely on renewable vitality, which makes up round 40 % of the Netherland’s electrical energy manufacturing.
When tech firms say they run on renewable vitality, what they often imply is that they’re paying for Renewable Vitality Certificates (RECs). A renewable vitality generator can promote RECs for each megawatt-hour of electrical energy {that a} wind farm generates. This income supply is meant to help the event of recent clear vitality initiatives.
However the recognition of RECs has led to a conundrum. Tumbling costs for RECs imply they typically don’t herald sufficient cash to incentivize the event of new renewable vitality initiatives — which may defeat the aim if you happen to aren’t including capability to the grid.
Google and different tech firms together with Microsoft are attempting to beat that downside by committing to buying carbon-free vitality regionally, hourly. Reasonably than matching their electrical energy consumption with renewable vitality purchases on an annual foundation, they’re committing to paying for renewable vitality that’s generated close by on the similar time their methods are working. This pushes the native energy grid to extend its capability for producing and storing clear vitality across the clock.
The offshore wind business, specifically, may actually use the help as rising prices have pressured builders to shutter initiatives in Europe and the US, the place Google has probably the most information facilities.
