The most ambitious sustainability plan yet
As the world’s largest purchaser of renewable energy per year, Google is leading the way on extensive clean energy projects. In the third decade of their active commitment to climate protection, they are tackling the most ambitious sustainability goal to date: they want to use CO2-free electricity everywhere, around the clock till 2030.
(Foto von Harry Cunningham @harry.digital von Pexels)
In 2020, Google met 100% of its annual electricity consumption through renewable energy purchases for the fourth consecutive year, bringing nearly 6 gigawatts of renewable energy online. This includes buying surplus renewable energy in regions where solar and wind power are plentiful – such as the US Midwest – to make up for a shortage of renewable energy elsewhere, such as Taiwan. Also, in some cases, they buy additional solar energy during the day to offset the use of carbon-based energy at night. Large-scale renewable energy procurement has brought down the price of clean energy, which is conducive to overall decarbonisation goals in the company and supports related projects around the world. However, there are still places and times when they rely on fossil fuels.
However, in the fight against climate change, it is crucial that companies do their part to avoid CO2 emissions. Therefore, Google needs to actually reduce their CO2 emissions from “net zero” to zero. Therefore, they are taking the next step towards CO2-free electricity supply around the clock. They want to meet our electricity needs everywhere and at all times with clean energy.
It will not be easy to achieve this goal, but climate change requires to act. By working to make all of our data centres and sites completely carbon-free, Google wants to show that a carbon neutral economy is possible – not just for them, but for everyone.
For more information on how they plan to achieve this goal, visit the clean energy microsite:
Source: https://www.google.com/about/datacenters/cleanenergy/