International.
Google's data centers and the offices of its 60,000 employees will be fully powered by renewable energy starting next year, in what the company has called a "key moment."
The company is currently the largest corporate buyer of renewable electricity in the world, because the previous year it acquired 44% of its energy from wind and solar farms. Now it will be 100%, and one executive said he would not rule out investing in nuclear power in the future.
"We are convinced that this is good for business, it is not about greenwashing. It's about blocking prices for us in the long run. Increasingly, renewable energy is the lowest-cost option," said Marc Oman, EU energy leader at Google. "Our founders are convinced that climate change is a real and immediate threat, so we have to do our part."
In 2015, Google bought 5.7 terawatt hours (TWh) of renewable electricity, slightly less than the 7.6TWh generated by all UK solar panels that year. Most of the energy comes from wind farms in the United States.
Oman said that while falling solar and wind prices meant they had been the cheapest technologies to reach 100% in 2017, Google was now looking to sign 10-year deals for non-intermittent low-carbon energy. such as hydroelectric, biomass and nuclear.
Source: The Guardian.
