Google About To Use 100% Renewable Energy in 2017

What is Google today? It’s one of the biggest Internet giants with millions of users all over the planet. Google holds numerous data centers and offices and that certainly takes enormous numbers of energy and power.

According to Senior Vice President UrsHölzle, the company’s engineers have to work quite hard to increase the minimum energy efficiency of the Google’s data centers, although the conducted operations still require lots of energy.

And even though right now more than 44% of its power comes from the wind and solar farms, the year of 2017 will be a complete change for the company as it plans to be powered by renewable electricity alone! Needless to say that any solar cell company would be interested in getting deeper into the subject.

First Company to Use Renewable Energy in Such Large Amounts

The first commitment from Google to run its business solely on renewable energy was made back in 2012. After several years the company became the largest corporate to take an advantage of solar powered inventions and consume renewable power in such big amounts.

Herewith it was one of the first companies to make a long-term agreement with farms to purchase all of their electricity. The first of such contracts was signed with one of the Iowa wind farms in 2010. Not only is the company the world’s largest corporate buyer of solar and wind power today, but also the one planning to reach 2,6 gigawatts of energy produced by solar and wind farms. This is an absolute record.

Solar and Wind Power Costs Less than Regular Energy Sources?

The Vice President of Google adds that buying renewable energy means switching on to eco-friendly energy sources that help to reduce a greenhouse effect and thereto have no effect on climate change. At the meantime, this switch can substantially lower the company’s expenses on energy.

Apparently, due to the rapid fall in costs for the wind and solar energy (almost 60% down for the wind and 80% for solar), it’s easy to conclude that purchasing renewables now becomes more of a low-cost option.

Therefore, counting on the fact that Google spends millions of dollars on energy to operate its data centers and offices, this change can help the company save even more.

Everything Starts out Small, even at Google

Knowing the average efficiency of solar panels, the corporate has built up its own solar farm on the roof of its headquarter in Mountain View, Silicon Valley. Not everyone knows, but Google indeed hosts the world’s largest solar power array, which is capable of producing 30% of the energy necessary for powering the entire town.

Certainly, the amounts of energy produced by such solar station in the Mountain View would never be enough for operating the entire Google system, therefore, the company makes regular agreements with solar and wind energy suppliers. And in order to pursue its major goal by 2017, Google has to make even more contracts focused on regional renewable energy suppliers in places where its data centers are located.

The Vice President hopes they would also find more options of energy sources or at least start supporting projects focused on improving solar and wind farms that will make the technologies even more modern. For instance, now there exist fully transparent see-through solar panels that can be installed in your house, as regular windows.

Standing For Environment – Google’s Priority for 2017

Climate change has been a top topic in the 21st century and the fact that the largest Internet corporate support the idea of eco-friendly energy sources is very promising.

Google hopes to involve both small and large businesses in the same policy to promote the idea of saving the environment from using traditional energy sources that contribute to global warming. It is important to mention that 2016 was a solar energy year for the USA.

“Running our operations with a help of renewable energy that has no harm to the environment was one of our core values from the very beginning. We have always taken care of the planet that remains suitable for life for our next generations”, – tells Hölzle at the end of his new Environmental Report.