Just two weeks after disclosing plans to purchase more renewable power from Duke Energy in North Carolina, technology giant Google on Thursday said it has signed six contracts with power providers that will nearly double its green power efforts to run data centers.

The long-term commitments announced cover up to 842 megawatts of power that will flow from six different wind and solar power projects scheduled to be finished within the next two years in the U.S., Chile and Sweden. Google isn’t disclosing how much it expects to pay for the power.

Some of the deals were signed several weeks ago, but Google timed its announcement to coincide with the U.N. conference in Paris that is exploring ways to reduce the volume of carbon emissions widely believed to be changing the Earth’s climate.

“We’ve signed six large-scale Power Purchase Agreements (or PPAs), which are long-term financial commitments to buy renewable energy from specific facilities,” Google said in a blog post.

Google going more green

  • North Carolina impact: Google’s agreement with Duke in N.C.
  • Read more about Google’s green power plans in North Carolina at:

http://googlegreenblog.blogspot.com/2013/11/an-update-on-our-efforts-to-expand.html

  • Read more about Google’s latest purchase agreements at:

http://www.google.com/green/energy/use/#purchasing

  • Overview of Google’s strategy for green energy:

http://www.google.com/green/energy/

“The first is for 114 MW of wind generation from the Story County II facility in Iowa, the second is for 100.8 MW of wind generation from the Minco II facility in Oklahoma, the third is for 72 MW of output from the Maevaara wind farm in Northern Sweden, the fourth is for 239.2 MW of wind generation from the Happy Hereford wind farm in the Texas Panhandle, the fifth is for the output of four wind farms in southern Sweden totaling 59 MW, and the sixth is for 43 MW of wind generation from the Golden Hills wind farm in Northern California. We’ve also signed three agreements directly with our utility providers …

“The power we purchase via these contracts is incorporated into the regional power grids from which we draw our electricity. These contracts also provide clean energy developers certainty on the payments for their power, which allows them to build these projects and/or obtain additional financing to build new projects. They also help us secure clean energy in the future—for ourselves and the world.”

The Mountain View, California, company has pledged to have all of its 14 data centers worldwide running on renewable energy as part of its quest to minimize the pollution caused by the rising demand for its Internet search engine, YouTube video service, Gmail, digital maps and other services.

Among those is Google’s large and growing data center in Lenoir, N.C.

“It’s an opportune time to make a strong statement,” said Gary Demasi, Google’s director of data center energy.
Google has now signed contracts covering 2 gigawatts of renewable energy, putting the company closer to its goal of having 3.6 gigawatts lined up by 2025. The 2 gigawatts currently under contract is enough to supply 2 million European homes annually, based on Google’s estimate that the renewable energy projects will generate an average of about 7.4 billion kilowatt hours of power.

Google, part of a recently formed company called Alphabet Inc., still has a long way to reach that goal. By its latest estimates, renewable energy accounts for 37 percent of the power needed to run its data centers.
Apple, Facebook and other technology companies also have been investing heavily in renewable energy in an effort to reduce the pollution caused by the popularity of their products. All of Apple’s data centers, offices and stores in the U.S. already run on renewable energy, but the company is still trying to obtain cleaner power for the overseas factories that make its iPhones, iPads and other devices.

Besides signing long-term contracts with renewable energy providers, Google also has invested about $2.5 billion in companies and projects trying to produce more wind, solar and geothermal power.