Green Blog
A better web. Better for the environment.
Welcoming Internet Engine No. 15
12/22/15
Data centers are the engines of the Internet. As the next billion users come online—whether making payments from a mobile phone in Nairobi or
sequencing DNA
at Broad Institute in Boston—we need to increase our capacity to serve them, and keep things running blazing fast.
Today we’re announcing what will become our 15th global data center—we’re thrilled to be named new owners of the former Hemlock Semiconductor site in Montgomery County, Tennessee.
When selecting any site, we look at the unique attributes and base our designs around them to build the most efficient and high-performing data centers possible. For example, our newest data center
in Alabama, U.S.
will be built on the site of a coal power plant, and in
Hamina, Finland
we built on an old paper mill and use seawater as the sole cooling mechanism.
The Hemlock site was originally developed as a Semiconductor manufacturing plant, but unfortunately was never completed. We’ll be able to re-use much of the existing infrastructure, and will recycle and re-design what we don’t. Based on our assessments, this site will be able to house new technologies we’re currently testing in research & development, which would make this data center the most technologically advanced in the world.
We are excited to again be working with the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), who will be our electricity provider at this site. Thanks to an arrangement with TVA we’ll be able to scout new renewable energy projects and work with them to bring that power onto their electrical grid; another step toward Google’s ultimate goal of being powered by 100% renewable energy. As the largest corporate energy purchaser in the world,
we have signed 2 gigawatts of renewable energy supply contracts
to offset the power used across our portfolio of data centers—equivalent to taking nearly 1 million cars off the road.
It’s a real pleasure to be moving into this space, and to become a part of Montgomery County. Total investments in this project will amount to more than $600 million, and we’ll start engaging with city and county officials to launch a formal community grants program around three issues: science and technology education, clean energy, and access to the Internet.
While opening a data center can take years, we can’t wait to get to the drawing board to design the next internet engine in our lineup. Good things come to those who wait!
Posted by Joe Kava, VP, Data Center Operation
s
Dutch windmills to power Google’s Eemshaven data center
11/18/14
(Cross-posted from the
Google Europe Blog
)
The Netherlands is famous for its
windmills
, which over the years have been used to saw wood, mill corn, pump water and much more. Now, a new generation of Dutch windmill - wind turbines - will power a very 21st century facility: our
new EUR 600m data center
, currently under construction in the north of the Netherlands.
Thanks to a new long-term agreement signed this week with Dutch power company Eneco, our Eemshaven data center will be 100% powered by renewable energy from its first day of operation, scheduled for the first half of 2016. We’ve agreed to buy the entire output of a new Eneco windfarm -- currently under construction at Delfzijl, near Eemshaven -- for the next ten years.
By entering into long-term agreements like this one with wind farm developers, we’ve been able to increase the amount of renewable energy we consume while helping enable the construction of new renewable energy facilities.
This is the third such power purchase agreement (PPA) we’ve signed in Europe in the last 18 months - the other two were with wind farm developers in Sweden and will power our Hamina, Finland data center with renewable energy.
Eneco’s new wind farm is an onshore-offshore development, which will use 19 turbines to generate 62 MW of renewable energy. Eneco expects the construction of the wind farm to provide employment for 80 people over the next 18 months.
This marks our eighth long-term agreement to purchase renewable energy around the globe. We sign these contracts for a few reasons: they make great financial sense for us by guaranteeing a long term source of clean energy for our data center and they also increase the amount of renewable energy available in the grid, which is great for the environment.
Posted by Francois Sterin, Director, Global Infrastructure Team
An Earth Day treat: lots of renewable energy for our Iowa data center
4/22/14
We’ve been talking to MidAmerican Energy, our energy supplier in Iowa, about renewable energy since we started building our
Iowa data center
in 2007. Just in time for Earth Day, we now have a freshly inked agreement with MidAmerican Energy to supply our Iowa data center facilities with up to 407 MW of 100% renewable wind energy, as tracked by renewable energy certificates. This agreement will not only cover our current facilities but will allow for future expansion supplied by renewable energy as well.
This is our
seventh and largest renewable energy commitment
to date, bringing the total amount of renewable energy we’ve contracted for to over one gigawatt (1,000 megawatts).
We’ve entered into a few different kinds of agreements over the years - sometimes signing power purchase agreements (PPAs) with wind farm developers and sometimes working with our local utility partners. This agreement is similar to our
2012 agreement
with our Oklahoma utility, the Grand River Dam Authority. In this case, MidAmerican Energy will sell energy to our Iowa data center bundled with and tracked by renewable energy certificates generated by projects that are part of its
Wind VIII program
.
PPAs and agreements like this one are a big part of the
commitment to carbon neutrality
we made back in 2007, and we’re working to make this whole process easier for other companies by advocating for
renewable energy tariffs
. Depending on the circumstances, any of these approaches can make sense, and we’re always on the hunt for new and creative ways to
power our operations
with renewable energy. But it’s not just our own operations we want to green: Google has also invested over $1B in 15
renewable energy investments
around the world in an effort to put more renewable energy on the grid and reduce global greenhouse gas emissions.
We’ll continue working with MidAmerican Energy and all of our utility partners to find diverse ways to deliver clean, renewable energy to our data centers. Happy Earth Day!
Posted by Neha Palmer and Sam Arons, Wind Ninjas
Pushing our energy performance even higher with ISO 50001 certification
7/24/13
It’s no secret that at Google we’re obsessed with building energy efficient data centers. Our facilities use 50% less energy than most other data centers, and we’re constantly pushing ourselves to be even more efficient with the energy we use. As part of that effort we’ve developed a comprehensive energy management system (EnMS), and we’re proud to announce that we’re the first company in North America to obtain a multi-site
ISO 50001
certification for that system, covering our corporate data center operations and six U.S. data centers.
Much like the
environmental and workforce safety management certifications we’ve received
, ISO 50001 is built around a “plan-do-check-act” concept. This concept ensures we have a strong energy policy, implement sound processes that strengthen our EnMS, build a robust auditing program, continually monitor, assess, and respond to our energy efficiency results, while always working on ways to make things even better. Based on the requirements in the standard, Google developed an EnMS that makes sense for our energy culture - this means continuously challenging energy performance goals, continuing to improve upon our energy efficient data center designs, and developing progressive monitoring systems, to name a few.
Our data centers in the following U.S. locations have received the ISO 50001 certification:
The Dalles, Oregon
Council Bluffs, Iowa
Mayes County, Oklahoma
Lenoir, North Carolina
Berkeley County, South Carolina
Douglas County, Georgia
We plan to expand our current certification to include our European data centers in the coming months.
Posted by Joe Kava, VP, Data centers
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