Google says it will run 100% on renewable energy in 2017

After a year that can be only be described as regrettable, sights are being set on 2017 and on what resolutions can be made that do not require shocking referendums, scandalous election results and celebrity deaths. The pressure is on the world’s biggest companies and policy makers to make the move, and who else to make a first step than Google, but is this good business or a clear case of greenwashing?

For a company who last year consumed as much energy as the city of San Francisco, the online giant declared that in 2017 its data centres and offices, which hold more than 60,000 staff members, will be powered entirely by renewable energy.

The company has been quick to brag about this feat, and rightly so. Google is already the world’s biggest corporate buyer of renewable electricity. Last year alone, the corporation bought 44% of its power from wind and solar farms. Now they want the number to be 100% for 2017.

Greenwashing or good business?

The question is to what extent is this “landmark moment” a simple case of greenwashing or is it actually good for business? As Marc Oman, Google’s EU energy lead, told The Guardian, “This is about locking in prices for us in the long term. Increasingly, renewable energy is the lowest cost option”. At a time when the very existence climate change is inexplicably under scrutiny Oman is clear. “Our founders are convinced climate change is a real immediate threat, so we have to do our part.”

This is a relief, seeing that technology companies are under increasing scrutiny over the carbon footprint of their operation which account for nearly 2% of all global greenhouse emissions, at a time where a lot is expected from new information and communication technology (ICT) in the mission to cut global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, with emerging habits such as increased video conferencing and smart building management.

This does not mean in any way that Google’s devices will only consume wind and solar power. Google operates an energy grid supplied by various sources such as hydroelectric dams, natural gas and coal. What Google succeed in is agreeing large-scale deals with renewable producers where Google buys the energy they produce from their wind turbines and solar cells. These purchases allow wind companies to obtain bank financing to build even more turbines

“We are the largest corporate purchaser of renewable energy in the world”, Google’s senior vice president technical infrastructure, Joe Kava, told the New York Times. The power that is created by the renewable gets plugged into the utility grid, increasing the share of renewable sources in the pool of electricity.

It is also good business for Google, because the price of wind supply does not fluctuate, facilitating planning and decreasing the price of these sources as purchases increase.

Changing mindset for companies

Google is not the first big cooperation to focus heavily on renewable energy, but the scale of their purchases is significant. In 2015, Google bought 5.7 terawatt hours (TWh) renewable elcricity, the majority of these from windfarms in the US, such as the 50,000 acre facility in Minko, Oklahoma. To put that in frame, the entire UK generated 7.6 TWh that same year, or in other terms, that energy could power two 140,000 person-towns.

Other companies like Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft have also followed suit. Ikea declared in 2012 that they would power all their stores with renewable energy by 2020, followed by HP’s confirmation of the same pledge the following year. Facebook have made similar wind-power related deals as Google, whilst Amazon have announced solar projects and have powered their machines with 40% renewable energy. Microsoft seeks to half its electric power, which currently stands at about 3.3millin megawatt-hours of power a year, but for now have had to abide with the symbolic act of investing in tree planting and renewable projects t make up for their use of fossil fuels.

For smaller companies, the task ahead can be difficult. It has taken Google five years to reach their current target of 100%, due to the complexity of negotiating the power purchase agreements from diverse sources. In their quest for achieving more power, the company have not discarded looking into other sources of renewable power, including hydro and nuclear power, if the means are sustainable and safe.

However, critics will still say that there will always be a hint of greenwashing in the major electricity consuming companies. As laudable as the move is, Google still power themselves with non-renewable sources, but the company matches this consumption with the purchase of renewable power to encourage the use of this source energy. Unnervingly, whilst the turbines keep moving and the solar-panels working, it won’t be the intermittent sun or the wind that will be charging the videos you see on YouTube or the likes you see on your Facebook feed. No, that will be fossil fuels.