Google has announced that it will hit the 100% renewable energy mark by 2017. It means that the entire breadth of the company’s global operations will be powered by renewable sources by 2017. According to the company, this will include both its data centers and its corporate offices. Whoo hoo!
This certainly wasn’t achieved overnight. The US giant had been working hard to reach this target and it was as early as 2010 that Google commenced large-scale direct investments in renewable energy, beginning with the acquisition of all the power generated by a 114-megawatt Iowa wind farm.
Today, Google proudly owns the title of the “world’s largest corporate buyer of renewable power.” The renewable purchases of the company stand at over twice that of Amazon, which is its next closest competitor.
Google does not want to settle on reaching the 100 per cent mark. It claims that it will cross the 100% mark next year on the grounds that it will have committed to purchase enough direct wind and solar-sourced power to match its annual consumption for the year.
In a blog post, Google said that solar, wind and other renewable are quickly becoming the cheapest source of power.
Therefore, it is not going to stop investing in renewable power generation project development even after it crosses the 100% mark. In all honesty, Google still sources a lot of its power from renewable energy credits, which actually means it might just be getting some of its power directly from non-renewable sources in some areas — albeit in a roundabout manner –however, the company is making up for this lapse by paying for enough generation in other locations with renewable sources.
So basically, what that means is that the company is still dependent upon non-renewable in certain areas — where renewables may not be available — however, it makes up for this by getting credit for excess production of renewable energy that’s going back into the grid for use by other consumers.
Meanwhile, Google has also released its first complete environmental report, which has detailed information about the efforts Google has put to minimize its environmental footprint. Moreover, it also includes information about other initiatives the company has taken for the protection of the environment.
