Google Makes Giant Purchase of Renewable Energy

Google recently made its biggest corporate purchase of renewable energy, according to a recent post. Together, these deals will increase the company’s worldwide portfolio of wind and solar agreements by more than 40%, to 5,500 MW — equivalent to the capacity of a million solar rooftops. Once all these projects come online, the carbon-free energy portfolio will produce more electricity than places like Washington D.C. or entire countries like Lithuania or Uruguay use each year.

The agreements will also spur the construction of more than $2 billion in new energy infrastructure, including millions of solar panels and hundreds of wind turbines spread across three continents. In all, our renewable energy fleet now stands at 52 projects, driving more than $7 billion in new construction and thousands of related jobs.

The company will be buying this power from new facilities instead of wind and solar farms. According to the post on www.google.com these 18 new deals span the globe, and include investments in the U.S., Chile and Europe. In the U.S., Google will purchase energy from 720 MW of solar farms in North Carolina (155 MW), South Carolina (75 MW), and Texas (490 MW) — more than doubling the capacity of its global solar portfolio to date.

The company also announced two new grants from Google.org to provide further support for organizations that expand access to clean energy for all businesses — from flower shops to big-box retailers to startups. It will provide a $500,000 grant to Renewable Energy Buyers Alliance (REBA) in the U.S. and a 500,000 euro grant to RE-Source in Europe. These grants will help fund the development of new purchasing models, provide training and resources for consumers, and enable more widespread access to clean power