Google goes greener

Google keeps getting greener.

In its largest energy industry deal, the Internet behemoth is buying the output of a future wind farm in the Texas Panhandle that will increase its renewable power production by almost half.

Google said in its official blog Tuesday that it made a deal with Chermac Energy Corp. for a 240-megawatt wind farm near Amarillo and that the purchase continues the Internet search company's bid to run its large data centers exclusively on renewable energy.

Google doesn't have a specific timeline to reach its renewable energy goal, and it faces a host of challenges, from strict regulatory environments in foreign countries where it operates to higher costs and lower qualities of renewable power across the globe, said Gary Demasi, Google's director of global infrastructure.

“It's an aspirational goal that we put a tremendous amount of effort and funding behind,” Demasi said. It's something the company is racing to keep up with as Google keeps growing, he added.

Google and Chermac didn't disclose financial terms of their deal, but with more than $1 billion in renewable energy investments since 2010, Google has become the most significant player in energy outside of the industry and big banks.

So far, the company has acquired about 570 megawatts of renewable energy, enough to power about 285,000 Texas homes during normal conditions and about 114,000 during peak power demand.


The wind farm, expected to go online late next year, will produce power for a grid in Oklahoma that serves one of the company's data centers.
