\n<\/p>\n
Google announced its biggest deal yet to purchase offshore wind energy for its data centers in Europe, signing power purchase agreements to support two new wind farms off the coast of the Netherlands. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n
It\u2019s part of Google\u2019s plan to match all of its data center electricity consumption with clean energy generation on a 24\/7 basis by 2030. To do that, the company will need to help get more renewable energy, including offshore wind, pulsing through power grids where it operates. It shared \u201cthe next step\u201d of that plan for Europe today, where it says it\u2019s adding more than 700 megawatts of clean energy capacity\u00a0to the grid.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Much of that new capacity will come from the pair of new offshore wind farms in the Netherlands, where Google operates two of its 24 data centers<\/a>. The power purchase agreements are with the CrossWind and Ecowende consortia, which are joint ventures between energy companies Shell and Eneco. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cIt\u2019s part of Google\u2019s plan to match all of its data center electricity consumption with clean energy generation on a 24\/7 basis by 2030.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Along with Google\u2019s previous power purchase agreements, the company says its Dutch data centers can hit 90 percent clean energy this year. Google also announced smaller deals to purchase renewable energy from onshore wind and solar farms in Italy, Poland, and Belgium.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Keep in mind that Google\u2019s plans are to match<\/em> its electricity use with carbon-free energy purchases. It\u2019s not as if the data centers themselves will run exclusively on renewable energy, which makes up around 40 percent<\/a> of the Netherland\u2019s electricity production. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n When tech companies say they run on renewable energy, what they usually mean is that they\u2019re paying for Renewable Energy Certificates<\/a> (RECs). A renewable energy generator can sell RECs for every megawatt-hour of electricity that a wind farm generates. This revenue source is supposed to support the development of new clean energy projects. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n But the popularity of RECs has led to a conundrum<\/a>. Tumbling prices for RECs mean they often don\u2019t bring in enough money to incentivize the development of new<\/em> renewable energy projects \u2014 which can defeat the purpose if you aren\u2019t adding capacity to the grid.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Google and other tech companies including Microsoft<\/a> are trying to overcome that problem by committing to purchasing carbon-free energy locally, hourly<\/a>. Rather than matching their electricity consumption with renewable energy purchases on an annual basis, they\u2019re committing to paying for renewable energy that\u2019s generated nearby at the same time their systems are operating. This pushes the local power grid to increase its capacity for generating and storing clean energy around the clock. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n The offshore wind industry, in particular, could certainly use the support as rising costs have forced developers to shutter projects in Europe<\/a> and the US<\/a>, where Google has the most data centers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n