Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) has moved forward in its goal of using 100% renewable energy for all its operations. Instead of reaching that goal by 2025, the internet giant plans to achieve that by next year. This will include the energy used at all its offices across the globe as well as its data centers. Most of that renewable energy will be a mix of solar and wind.
“To reach this goal we’ll be directly buying enough wind and solar electricity annually to account for every unit of electricity our operations consume, globally,” Google’s senior vice president for technical infrastructure, Urs Hölzle, wrote in an online posting.
Renewable energy investment to continue
After reaching its goal of using 100% renewable energy by next year, Google will still continue to invest in more renewable energy projects. This was stated in the internet giant’s inaugural comprehensive environmental report. This comes as the company continues expanding its cloud services which will mean that energy consumption will keep growing in tandem.
Besides the renewable sources of energy being good hopefully for the environment, Google is also counting on generating cost savings. Wind energy costs have, for instance, fallen by more than 60%. At Google’s data centers, energy costs constitute a big component of operating expenses.
Largest renewable energy buyer
Currently, Google is one of the biggest corporate buyers of renewable energy. Its move to renewable energy took on significant proportions in 2010 when it began with one deal. Then it purchased all the power generated by an Iowa wind farm, about 114MW. Such deals have now grown to reach 19. In a region like Asia where renewable energy is gathering steam, Google’s strategy will be to get into regional energy deals.
The achievement by Google in reaching its renewable energy goals is however restricted to Google only as other companies operating under Alphabet have different energy consumption levels. Plans are, however, underway to initiate sustainability efforts in the other Alphabet companies.
In Tuesday’s trading, Alphabet Inc closed the day lower at $776.18 having fallen by 0.26% from previous day’s trading.
