New wind in Finland: Scaling renewable energy as we grow

Last year, we announced that Google had reached our 100 percent renewable energy purchasing goal, meaning that we matched 100 percent of the electricity consumption from our global operations—including both our data centers and our offices—with renewable energy purchased in the markets where we operate. Because Google continues to grow, we need to keep up our purchases of renewable energy to stay at our goal. Today, we’re announcing agreements to purchase additional renewable energy from three new wind farms in Finland totaling 190 MW—our first such deals in the country.

These power purchase agreements (PPAs), signed with three of Europe’s leading renewable energy developers—CPC, Neoen, and WPD—will add new renewable capacity to the same grid where we draw power for our data center in Hamina. They’re also our first renewable power purchases in Europe from projects that will not receive any government subsidy, demonstrating that, in a growing number of locations, the cost of new renewable energy is competitive with the cost of power from the grid. We’ve now signed 14 purchase agreements in Europe totalling nearly 900 MW of wind and solar capacity.    

Purchasing renewable energy is part of our commitment to growing our operations sustainably, but it also makes good business sense, as we sign long-term, fixed-price contracts that reduce our exposure to volatile fuel prices. Just like our data center investments, our renewable energy purchases also bring benefits in the form of jobs and economic activity to communities where the projects are developed and built. To date, Google’s PPAs in Europe have enabled 1 billion euros in investment into renewable energy.

As our operations in Europe continue to grow, so too will our renewable energy purchases. We also want to help all companies secure a clear and easy path to purchasing renewable energy in Europe, and are working with other companies and nonprofit organizations to make that happen.