Dive Brief:
- Google has signed a long-term power purchase agreement with NextEra Energy Resources to purchase power from the Altamont Pass wind facility to run its North Bayshore campus in Mountain View, Calif.
- Google has been committed to being a carbon-neutral company since 2007, and already purchases clean energy for its data centers, but this agreement is the first of its kind to address energy use at Google corporate offices, according to the company's blog.
- The deal will fundamentally remake the wind facility, replacing almost 800 turbines with less than 50 more efficient turbines that can generate twice as much energy.
Dive Insight:
Google has already invested $1.5 billion into clean energy and began this year with announcements on wind and solar projects it was taking part in. But this most recent deal with NextaEra is different, because it targets the energy used in the internet behemoth's corporate offices. It also shows the company is committed to broadly continuing its investments in greener power.
While financial terms of the agreement were not released, the deal will help to repower the iconic Bay Area wind farm at California’s Altamont Pass with new turbines, bringing 43 MW of electricity onto the grid starting in 2016. Google said the new turbines were twice as efficient and not a threat to wildlife.
The Mercury News reports that under the deal Google will take half of the Altamont facility's power. To generate the power Google will take, the company said its portion of the facility would call for 370 turbines to be replaced with 24 newer models.
Earlier this year Google announced it was part of a coalition of companies funding the 300-MW Balko Wind project in Beaver County, Okla. The company is also backing the 104-NW Red Hills solar plant in Utah.