Google Announces Wind and Solar Energy Contracts at COP 21

December 3, 2015 – Today Google announced that it was entering into new contracts to buy electricity from a number of wind and solar farms in the United States, Sweden and Chile to help it achieve the mission of its Go 100% Renewable Energy Project.

The contracts are with Duke Energy, Acciona and Eolus Vind. Terms are between 10 and 20 years. Currently renewable energy sources supply 37% of Google’s data centre operations. The company’s own renewable energy investments exceed $2 billion U.S.

Combined capacity of these new energy sources is 842 megawatts, about the equivalent of a medium-sized coal-fired power plant. Total renewable energy sources for Google have now reached 2,800 megawatts.

Google’s head of energy and global infrastructure, Michael Terrell, is quoted in the Financial Times, stating “we’re doing these deals not only because they are good for mitigating our carbon impact…..as prices for renewables have come down, it’s really started to make a lot of business sense.”

The market for corporate green power purchases has doubled in the last two years according to Terrell. Apple, Walmart and Cisco are also entering into green power contracts further stimulating the growth in renewable energy capacity.