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More Swedish wind power for our Finnish data centre
1/22/14
(Cross-posted from the
Google Europe Blog
)
We’re keen to make sure that our data centres around the world use as much renewable energy as possible. By entering into
long-term agreements
with wind farm developers over the past few years, we’ve been able to increase the amount of renewable energy we consume while helping enable the construction of new facilities.
Today we announced that we’ve signed a new power purchase agreement (PPA) in Sweden (our
second such agreement
there in less than 12 months). We will buy the entire electricity output of four as-yet-unbuilt wind farms in southern Sweden, at a fixed price, for the next ten years.
Windfarm developer
Eolus Vind
will build four wind farms, in Alered, Mungseröd, Skalleberg and Ramsnäs, Sweden. The 29-turbine project, with a total combined capacity of 59MW, already has all relevant planning approvals and permits and will become fully operational in early 2015.
Our seawater-cooled data centre in Hamina, Finland
Once completed, the wind farms will provide Google’s Hamina, Finland, data centre with additional renewable energy as the facility
expands
in coming years.
Buying renewable energy in Sweden and consuming it in Finland is possible thanks to Europe’s increasingly integrated power markets, in particular the Nord Pool spot market. This allows Google to buy renewable energy with Guarantee of Origin certification in Sweden, “retire” the certificates and then consume an equivalent amount of power elsewhere in Europe.
This marks our sixth long-term agreement to purchase renewable energy. We keep signing these contracts for two main reasons: they make great financial sense for us, and increase the amount of renewable energy available in the grid, which is great for the environment too.
Posted by Francois Sterin, Director, Global Infrastructure Team
A new wind investment in Texas
1/14/14
(Cross-posted from the
Official Google Blog
)
It sure is windy in Texas. So windy, in fact, that we’ve made
another
wind energy investment there. In late December we finalized an agreement to invest $75 million in the Panhandle 2 wind farm in Carson County, outside of Amarillo. The 182MW facility, developed by leading wind developer Pattern Energy Group LP, has the capacity to generate enough renewable energy to power 56,000 U.S. homes. We expect the facility to be operational by the end of 2014.
The future sight of Pattern's Panhandle 2 wind farm
Panhandle 2 is our
15th renewable energy investment overall
, and our second in Texas—last year around this time we announced an approximately $200 million investment in the
Spinning Spur wind farm
. In addition to these two projects, we’re also buying Texas wind from the
Happy Hereford wind farm
as part of our
goal
of operating on 100 percent renewable energy. These efforts reflect our long-standing commitment to renewable energy as both an investor and a consumer.
Sunset at another Pattern facility, Gulf Wind
Let that Texas wind blow!
Posted by Nick Coons, Principal, Renewable Energy
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