Its data centers and offices will also use renewable energy.
Google technical infrastructure senior vice president Urs Holzle said: “To reach this goal we’ll be directly buying enough wind and solar electricity annually to account for every unit of electricity our operations consume, globally.”
After signing its first agreement to buy all the electricity from a 114MW wind farm in Iowa, in 2010, the company claims to have become the the world’s largest corporate buyer of renewable power.
Overall, its commitments have reached 2.6 gigawatts of wind and solar energy.
Holzle said: “That’s bigger than many large utilities and more than twice as much as the 1.21 gigawatts it took to send Marty McFly back to the future.”
The company said that the cost of wind and solar came down 60% and 80%, respectively.
Google’s electricity powers account for a major part of its data centers’ operating expenses.
To date, its purchasing commitments will result in infrastructure investments of more than $3.5bn globally, about two-thirds of that in the US.
Holzle added: “These projects also generate tens of millions of dollars per year in revenue to local property owners, and tens of millions more to local and national governments in tax revenue.”
The company said that its 20 renewable energy projects also help support communities, from Grady County, OK, to Rutherford County, NC, to the Atacama Region of Chile to municipalities in Sweden.
Image: Google's commitments have reached 2.6 gigawatts of wind and solar energy. Photo: courtesy of maya picture/FreeDigitalPhotos.net.
