Another tech giant is opening its checkbook for renewable energy projects.
Google on Thursday announced what it says is the largest-ever renewable energy purchase by a non-utility as the search giant looks to increase the amount of green energy powering its facilities. The company (GOOG) said its latest investments add 842 megawatts of renewable energy capacity that can help power its expansive data centers around the world. The projects include a Swedish wind farm and a solar plant in Chile.
Google has increased its overall renewable energy capacity to 2 gigawatts—something the company likened to “to taking nearly 1 million cars off the road”—as it works toward tripling its renewable energy purchases with the goal of powering 100% of operations through renewable energy by 2025. Other companies, such as Apple (AAPL) and Microsoft (MSFT), have made similar pledges. Thursday’s announcement comes a little over a week after Google signed a deal with Duke Energy (DUK) to partner on a 61-megawatt solar project in North Carolina.
“For our part, these contracts not only help minimize the environmental impact of our services—they also make good business sense by ensuring good prices,” Google said in its announcement.
The news from Google also comes a few days after Microsoft (MSFT) co-founder Bill Gates launched a multibillion dollar investment fund for clean energy projects to kick off the United Nations’ climate change summit in Paris. That deal will see Gates partner with 20 countries—including the U.S., France, India, and South Korea—while several other tech billionaires, such as Facebook’s (FB) Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon’s (AMZN) Jeff Bezos, will join the initiative.
