Green Blog
A better web. Better for the environment.
Another windy day in Texas: a new power purchase agreement
9/17/13
(Cross-posted on the
Official Google Blog
)
As part of our quest to power our operations with 100% renewable energy, we’ve agreed to purchase the entire output of the 240 MW Happy Hereford wind farm outside of Amarillo, Texas. This agreement represents our fifth long-term agreement and our largest commitment yet; we’ve now contracted for more than 570 MW of wind energy, which is enough energy to power approximately 170,000 U.S. households.
The Happy Hereford wind farm, which is expected to start producing energy in late 2014, is being developed by
Chermac Energy
, a small, Native American-owned company based in Oklahoma. The wind farm will provide energy to the Southwest Power Pool (SPP), the regional grid that serves our Mayes County, Okla. data center.
Some (happy) cows on the future site of the wind farm.
The cows will still have plenty of room to graze between the turbines.
The structure of this agreement is similar to our earlier commitments in
Iowa
and
Oklahoma
. Due to the current structure of the market, we can’t consume the renewable energy produced by the wind farm directly, but the impact on our overall carbon footprint and the amount of renewable energy on the grid is the same as if we could consume it. After purchasing the renewable energy, we’ll retire the renewable energy credits (RECs) and sell the energy itself to the wholesale market. We’ll apply any additional RECs produced under this agreement to reduce our carbon footprint elsewhere.
This type of power purchase agreement represents one of
several ways
we’re working to make additional renewable energy available for both our data centers and the communities in which we operate. In Scandinavia, due to the region’s unified power market and grid system, we’re able to
purchase wind energy in Sweden
and directly consume it at our Hamina, Finland data center. We’re also working with our local utility partners to develop new options. In 2012, we signed an agreement with GRDA, our utility partner in Oklahoma, to
green the energy supply
to our Oklahoma data center with 48 MW of wind energy from the Canadian Hills Wind Project. Earlier this year, we began
working with Duke Energy
to develop a new
renewable energy tariff
(PDF) in North Carolina.
We take a comprehensive approach to acquiring renewable energy for our operations. We’ll continue working directly with utility providers, collaborating with industry regulators and pursuing
creative agreements
(PDF) like the Happy Hereford PPA.
Posted by Matt Pfile, Senior Manager, Data Center Energy and Location Strategy
The latest on our carbon footprint
8/13/13
We’ve just updated our
Google Green site
with carbon footprint data for 2012. Over the past year we’ve continued to use more renewable energy, squeezed even more efficiency out of our operations and helped our customers reduce their own IT footprint.
Google has been carbon neutral for six years. This means that all of the work we do has a total carbon footprint of zero. This includes serving 100 billion search queries and 6 billion hours of YouTube videos a month, supporting 750 million Chrome users and delivering Google Maps in 194 countries. It also includes efforts such as developing self-driving cars and
launching Wi-Fi-enabled balloons into the atmosphere
.
In 2012 we emitted 1.5 million metric tons of carbon dioxide, before purchasing
high-quality carbon offsets
to reduce that footprint to zero. Our total carbon emissions decreased 9% compared to the previous year because we’re now deducting our green power purchases from our carbon footprint. We’re deducting these purchases according to new reporting guidance from the
Carbon Disclosure Project
. We continue to
buy large amounts of renewable energy
for our operations; to date we’ve contracted for over 330 MW of wind power in the US and Europe. For transparency’s sake, we’re also reporting our footprint without those purchases. We urge others to do the same, which is why we participate in the
World Resources Institute Scope 2 accounting process
. This helps to ensure greenhouse gas reporting remains transparent and meaningful.
For the
fourth year in a row
, we’re emitting less carbon per million dollars of revenue. This means that our footprint is growing more slowly than our business because we’re able to get more done with each gram of carbon we emit.
To put these numbers in perspective, we estimate that serving an active Google user for one month is like driving a car one mile. For this calculation, we assumed that an active Google user is someone who does 25 searches and watches 60 minutes of YouTube a day, has a Gmail account and uses our other services. To serve that user, Google emits about 8 grams of carbon per day.
We’re also helping others reduce their carbon footprint.
Research indicates
that cloud computing is more energy efficient than traditional IT. This means that the five million businesses using Google Apps are reducing their IT energy consumption. Using the
Berkeley Lab model
, we estimate that their combined savings could add up to more than our carbon footprint. As we continue to
drive down our emissions
, we’re encouraged that our efficiency gains are translating into lower emissions for our users.
Posted by Jolanka Nickerman, Carbon Czarina
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
In the limelight: Take a virtual field trip
6/24/13
"In the limelight" is a monthly series showcasing the ways people are using Google products to be better to the environment. Explore ways you can be greener with help from Google products on the
Google Green website
.
June kicks off the official start of summer, and that means summer vacation and travel for many of us. If you’re looking to visit a zoo, aquarium or museum, now you can take a trip from your living room: organizations like Zoo Atlanta are using
Google+
to create “Virtual Field Trips” and give us a front row seat to the latest exhibits, events and educational experiences.
Today we’re sitting down with Becky Scheel, Exhibit Designer and Green Team Member at
Zoo Atlanta
, home to the nation’s largest collection of gorillas, to discuss how they’ve used
Google+
to connect us with the many inhabitants at the zoo--from Po the Panda to Sohni the Sumatran tiger.
What is the concept behind the “Virtual Field Trips?” Where has Zoo Atlanta “virtually” taken people?
“Virtual Field Trips” helps bring the classroom and educational experience to anyone, anywhere. We’ve had the privilege to hangout with the likes of giant pandas, gorilla keepers, veterinarians, and the very charming
Cortez the macaw
, a bright-colored, often chatty, tropical bird. Some of our Hangouts take you behind the scenes, like the
Great Ape Heart Project Hangout
, during which staff performed a live echocardiogram on a gorilla to test its heart. We always try to include an “animal star,” even with their strict demands for snacks and attention.
What was the motivation for Zoo Atlanta to begin using Google+?
Google+ is a great vehicle to showcase our photography and share our stories. The format, with its flexibility, allows us to go more in-depth, and our Google+ community is really receptive to and engages frequently with our posts like
panda Lun Lun’s picky eating habits
.
What are some of the benefits of using Google+?
Hangouts! We have done nine Hangouts On Air (the live broadcasting feature) and are really enjoying it. Each Hangout provides students from around the country the opportunity to explore and learn from the world outside of the classroom and introduces some of our amazing animals and staff in a personal, conversational format. From the “Physics of Flight” to “Exploring Ecosystems” (where you meet Max the porcupine), you can watch all of Zoo Atlanta’s Hangouts On Air
here
.
How can people help animals like Lun Lun and Ivan?
One of the easiest ways is to start a
cell phone recycling collection
. Most cell phones contain coltan, a substance mined in the same areas as gorilla habitats. The reuse of the recycled cell phones results in the need for fewer new ones, which in turn reduces the need for coltan mining. It’s a mouthful, so we created an
infographic
to help explain how you can help protect these incredible animals.
Discover more ways to connect with and support environmental organizations through Google+ on the
Google Green website
. To learn about the many other organizations creating “Virtual Field Trips”, be sure to check out the
launch video
.
Posted by Jeff Eisenberg, Google Green
How green is the Internet?
6/11/13
More than ever, people are using the Internet to shop, read, listen to music and learn. And businesses rely on Internet-based tools to operate and deliver their services efficiently. The Internet has created all kinds of new opportunities for society and the economy—but what does it mean for the environment?
We’ve been
working to answer
that question and enlisted the help of
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
(Berkeley Lab) to gather more data.
Their study
(PDF), released today, shows that migrating all U.S. office workers to the cloud could save up to 87 percent of IT energy use—about 23 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity annually, or enough to power the city of Los Angeles for a year. The savings are associated with shifting people in the workforce to Internet-based applications like email, word processing and customer relationship software.
These results indicate that the Internet offers huge potential for energy savings. We’re especially excited that Berkeley Lab has made its
model
publicly available so other researchers and experts can plug in their own assumptions and help refine and improve the results.
Of course, understanding the impact of shifting office applications to the cloud is only part of the story, which is why last week we hosted a summit called
“How Green is the Internet?”
to explore these questions in greater detail. At the summit, experts presented data on how the growth of Internet infrastructure, including devices like phones and tablets, can impact the environment. We also saw great excitement about the potential for entirely new Internet-enabled tools in areas like transportation, e-commerce and digital content to deliver huge energy and carbon savings. We’ve
posted the videos
from those sessions and invite you to take a look.
One of our goals in hosting the summit and supporting the Berkeley Lab study was to identify and encourage new research on this topic. We’ll continue to work to answer some of these questions, and we hope others will too.
Posted by Michael Terrell, Senior Policy Counsel, Energy & Sustainability
Powering our Finnish data center with Swedish wind energy
6/4/13
What do a Swedish wind farm developer, a German insurance company and Google’s Finnish data center have in common? As of today, a lot. We’ve just inked agreements with
O2
and
Allianz
to supply our Finnish data center with renewable energy for the next 10 years—our fourth long-term agreement to power our data centers with renewable energy worldwide, and our first in Europe.
Here’s how it works: O2, the wind farm developer, has obtained planning approval to build a new 72MW wind farm at
Maevaara
, in Övertorneå and Pajala municipality in northern Sweden, using highly efficient 3MW wind turbines. We’ve committed to buying the entire output of that wind farm for 10 years so that we can power our Finnish data center with renewable energy. That agreement has helped O2 to secure 100% financing for the construction of the wind farm from the investment arm of German insurance company Allianz, which will assume ownership when the wind farm becomes operational in early 2015.
This arrangement is possible thanks to Scandinavia’s integrated electricity market and grid system, Nord Pool. It enables us to buy the wind farm’s output in Sweden with Guarantee of Origin certification and consume an equivalent amount of power at our data center in Finland. We then “retire” the Guarantee of Origin certificates to show that we’ve actually used the energy.
As a carbon neutral company, our goal is to use as much renewable energy as possible—and by doing so, stimulate further production. The Maevaara wind farm not only allows us to make our already
highly energy-efficient
Finnish data center even more sustainable, it also meets our goal of adding new renewable energy generation capacity to the grid.
Of course, using renewable energy is good for the environment, but it also makes long term financial sense. That’s why, in addition to protecting ourselves against future increases in power prices through long-term purchasing for our operations, we also invest in new renewable energy projects that will deliver a return for our money. In recent years we’ve committed more than $1 billion to such projects in the
U.S.
,
Germany
and, just last week,
South Africa
. We’ll continue to look for similar opportunities around the globe.
Posted by Francois Sterin, Senior Manager, Global Infrastructure Team
Plug In @ Work, Google style!
6/3/13
If you listened closely two weeks ago, a quiet whir could be heard throughout the Googleplex as the newest and coolest electric vehicles zipped up and down the streets lining campus. Within the span of 3 hours, about 500 Googlers got behind the wheel of a plug-in vehicle, and many more checked out a full range of “cars with cords” on display as part of Thursday’s plug-in vehicle showcase & test drive, our 3rd annual event of its kind.
With Plug In America’s help, we were fortunate enough to have 11 automakers participate in the the
Plug In @ Work
experience, including Arcimoto, BMW, Cadillac, Chevrolet, Ford, Honda, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Smart, Tesla, Toyota, and Zero Motorcycles. By giving our employees the opportunity pop the hood, kick the tires, and drive some of these electric cars and motorcycles, we hope some are inspired to switch out the gas pump for a charging cord.
Google has already joined the U.S. Department of Energy’s
Workplace Charging Challenge
, as well as the
Calstart EV employer initiative
, and providing a time and place for our employees to test these vehicles helps advance this great work. And, our timing aligned perfectly with an amazing plug-in milestone: The
100,000th electric vehicle was sold
in the US a few days later!
Google is delighted to bring experiences like this to our employees, and remains an enthusiastic supporter of plug-in vehicles as part of a longer term sustainable transportation solution. We have grown our charging infrastructure to provide Level 2 charging capabilities at over 400 parking spaces across our Mountain View headquarters and 8 other Google locations.
Posted by Rolf Schreiber, Technical Program Manager, Electric Transportation
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