Google Blog, Tuesday, September 17, 2013
As part of
our quest to power our operations with 100% renewable energy, we’ve agreed to
purchase the entire output of the 240 MW Happy Hereford wind farm outside of
Amarillo, Texas. This agreement represents our fifth long-term agreement and
our largest commitment yet; we’ve now contracted for more than 570 MW of wind
energy, which is enough energy to power approximately 170,000 U.S. households.
The Happy Hereford
wind farm, which is expected to start producing energy in late 2014, is being
developed by Chermac Energy, a small, Native American-owned company based in
Oklahoma. The wind farm will provide energy to the Southwest Power Pool (SPP),
the regional grid that serves our Mayes County, Okla. data center.
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| Some (happy) cows on the future site of the wind farm. The cows will still have plenty of room to graze between the turbines. |
The
structure of this agreement is similar to our earlier commitments in Iowa and
Oklahoma. Due to the current structure of the market, we can’t consume the
renewable energy produced by the wind farm directly, but the impact on our
overall carbon footprint and the amount of renewable energy on the grid is the
same as if we could consume it. After purchasing the renewable energy, we’ll
retire the renewable energy credits (RECs) and sell the energy itself to the
wholesale market. We’ll apply any additional RECs produced under this agreement
to reduce our carbon footprint elsewhere.
This type
of power purchase agreement represents one of several ways we’re working to
make additional renewable energy available for both our data centers and the
communities in which we operate. In Scandinavia, due to the region’s unified
power market and grid system, we’re able to purchase wind energy in Sweden and
directly consume it at our Hamina, Finland data center. We’re also working with
our local utility partners to develop new options. In 2012, we signed an
agreement with GRDA, our utility partner in Oklahoma, to green the energy supply to our Oklahoma data center with 48 MW of wind energy from the Canadian
Hills Wind Project. Earlier this year, we began working with Duke Energy to
develop a new renewable energy tariff (PDF) in North Carolina.
We take a
comprehensive approach to acquiring renewable energy for our operations. We’ll
continue working directly with utility providers, collaborating with industry
regulators and pursuing creative agreements (PDF) like the Happy Hereford PPA.
Posted by
Matt Pfile, Senior Manager, Data Center Energy and Location Strategy
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