Dive Brief:
- Google made its biggest single renewable energy buy yet with an agreement to power its Council Bluffs, Iowa, data center through a 407 megawatt contract for wind energy-generated electricity from MidAmerican Energy Holdings.
- MidAmerican, which is based in Iowa and is a subsidiary of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, will fill the contract from multiple wind farms that are part of its Wind VIII effort to add 1,050 megawatts of wind energy in Iowa by the end of 2015.
- This continues and extends the pattern of major companies, including Facebook, Apple, Intel, and Ikea, moving to wind energy and other renewables to power their operations.
Dive Insight:
Google Sustainability Director Rick Needham told this reporter it invests in renewables for two reasons:
First, because the investments make good economic sense; and second, because it takes its role as a trend leader seriously and intends to set an example in the fight against climate change and the transition to a new power generation paradigm.
Google, Inc., has now made six wind investments in Iowa, Texas, California, and North Dakota, totaling 1,239.5 megawatts, and is a partial investor in the 845 megawatt Shepherd’s Flat project in Oregon.
Google has also made nine investments in solar and is a major backer of the Atlantic Wind Connection backbone transmission line for New England offshore wind.
