NZ Herald
  • Home
  • Latest news
  • Herald NOW
  • Video
  • New Zealand
  • Sport
  • World
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Viva
  • Weather

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • New Zealand
    • All New Zealand
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Open Justice
    • Scam Update
  • Herald NOW
  • On The Up
  • World
    • All World
    • Australia
    • Asia
    • UK
    • United States
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • Pacific
  • Business
    • All Business
    • MarketsSharesCurrencyCommoditiesStock TakesCrypto
    • Markets with Madison
    • Media Insider
    • Business analysis
    • Personal financeKiwiSaverInterest ratesTaxInvestment
    • EconomyInflationGDPOfficial cash rateEmployment
    • Small business
    • Business reportsMood of the BoardroomProject AucklandSustainable business and financeCapital markets reportAgribusiness reportInfrastructure reportDynamic business
    • Deloitte Top 200 Awards
    • CompaniesAged CareAgribusinessAirlinesBanking and financeConstructionEnergyFreight and logisticsHealthcareManufacturingMedia and MarketingRetailTelecommunicationsTourism
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Editorials
    • Business analysis
    • Premium opinion
    • Letters to the editor
  • Politics
  • Sport
    • All Sport
    • OlympicsParalympics
    • RugbySuper RugbyNPCAll BlacksBlack FernsRugby sevensSchool rugby
    • CricketBlack CapsWhite Ferns
    • Racing
    • NetballSilver Ferns
    • LeagueWarriorsNRL
    • FootballWellington PhoenixAuckland FCAll WhitesFootball FernsEnglish Premier League
    • GolfNZ Open
    • MotorsportFormula 1
    • Boxing
    • UFC
    • BasketballNBABreakersTall BlacksTall Ferns
    • Tennis
    • Cycling
    • Athletics
    • SailingAmerica's CupSailGP
    • Rowing
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Viva - Food, fashion & beauty
    • Society Insider
    • Royals
    • Sex & relationships
    • Food & drinkRecipesRecipe collectionsRestaurant reviewsRestaurant bookings
    • Health & wellbeing
    • Fashion & beauty
    • Pets & animals
    • The Selection - Shop the trendsShop fashionShop beautyShop entertainmentShop giftsShop home & living
    • Milford's Investing Place
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • TV
    • MoviesMovie reviews
    • MusicMusic reviews
    • BooksBook reviews
    • Culture
    • ReviewsBook reviewsMovie reviewsMusic reviewsRestaurant reviews
  • Travel
    • All Travel
    • News
    • New ZealandNorthlandAucklandWellingtonCanterburyOtago / QueenstownNelson-TasmanBest NZ beaches
    • International travelAustraliaPacific IslandsEuropeUKUSAAfricaAsia
    • Rail holidays
    • Cruise holidays
    • Ski holidays
    • Luxury travel
    • Adventure travel
  • Kāhu Māori news
  • Environment
    • All Environment
    • Our Green Future
  • Talanoa Pacific news
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Property Insider
    • Interest rates tracker
    • Residential property listings
    • Commercial property listings
  • Health
  • Technology
    • All Technology
    • AI
    • Social media
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
    • Opinion
    • Audio & podcasts
  • Weather forecasts
    • All Weather forecasts
    • Kaitaia
    • Whangārei
    • Dargaville
    • Auckland
    • Thames
    • Tauranga
    • Hamilton
    • Whakatāne
    • Rotorua
    • Tokoroa
    • Te Kuiti
    • Taumaranui
    • Taupō
    • Gisborne
    • New Plymouth
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Dannevirke
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Levin
    • Paraparaumu
    • Masterton
    • Wellington
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Blenheim
    • Westport
    • Reefton
    • Kaikōura
    • Greymouth
    • Hokitika
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
    • Wānaka
    • Oamaru
    • Queenstown
    • Dunedin
    • Gore
    • Invercargill
  • Meet the journalists
  • Promotions & competitions
  • OneRoof property listings
  • Driven car news

Puzzles & Quizzes

  • Puzzles
    • All Puzzles
    • Sudoku
    • Code Cracker
    • Crosswords
    • Cryptic crossword
    • Wordsearch
  • Quizzes
    • All Quizzes
    • Morning quiz
    • Afternoon quiz
    • Sports quiz

Regions

  • Northland
    • All Northland
    • Far North
    • Kaitaia
    • Kerikeri
    • Kaikohe
    • Bay of Islands
    • Whangarei
    • Dargaville
    • Kaipara
    • Mangawhai
  • Auckland
  • Waikato
    • All Waikato
    • Hamilton
    • Coromandel & Hauraki
    • Matamata & Piako
    • Cambridge
    • Te Awamutu
    • Tokoroa & South Waikato
    • Taupō & Tūrangi
  • Bay of Plenty
    • All Bay of Plenty
    • Katikati
    • Tauranga
    • Mount Maunganui
    • Pāpāmoa
    • Te Puke
    • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Hawke's Bay
    • All Hawke's Bay
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Havelock North
    • Central Hawke's Bay
    • Wairoa
  • Taranaki
    • All Taranaki
    • Stratford
    • New Plymouth
    • Hāwera
  • Manawatū - Whanganui
    • All Manawatū - Whanganui
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Manawatū
    • Tararua
    • Horowhenua
  • Wellington
    • All Wellington
    • Kapiti
    • Wairarapa
    • Upper Hutt
    • Lower Hutt
  • Nelson & Tasman
    • All Nelson & Tasman
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Tasman
  • Marlborough
  • West Coast
  • Canterbury
    • All Canterbury
    • Kaikōura
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
  • Otago
    • All Otago
    • Oamaru
    • Dunedin
    • Balclutha
    • Alexandra
    • Queenstown
    • Wanaka
  • Southland
    • All Southland
    • Invercargill
    • Gore
    • Stewart Island
  • Gisborne

Media

  • Video
    • All Video
    • NZ news video
    • Herald NOW
    • Business news video
    • Politics news video
    • Sport video
    • World news video
    • Lifestyle video
    • Entertainment video
    • Travel video
    • Markets with Madison
    • Kea Kids news
  • Podcasts
    • All Podcasts
    • The Front Page
    • On the Tiles
    • Ask me Anything
    • The Little Things
    • Cooking the Books
  • Cartoons
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Business / Companies / Energy

Google to be powered 100pc by renewable energy next year

By Chris Mooney
Washington Post·
6 Dec, 2016 07:17 PM3 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Windmills at a wind farm in Minco, Oklahoma, provides Google with some of its renewable energy.

Windmills at a wind farm in Minco, Oklahoma, provides Google with some of its renewable energy.

Google, a trendsetter in the field of corporate purchases of wind and solar energy, made a striking proclamation - by next year, it forecasts that it'll be purchasing as much renewable electricity as it uses across its vast operations.

Overall, the company now has, under contract, 2.6 gigawatts (or billion watts) of renewable energy generating capacity, predominantly wind energy but with a growing concentration of solar, around the world. That includes contracts to buy wind energy produced in Iowa, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas; additional international wind buys in the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden; solar purchases in North Carolina and Chile; and more. It started making these arrangements in 2010 and has been rolling out more ever since.

"Essentially what it means is that we will be buying as many renewable energy megawatt hours as we'll be consuming at our facilities," said Gary Demasi, Google's head of global infrastructure and energy. "Add them up at the end of the year, and they will match."

Google tends to buy renewable electricity in the form of long-term, fixed-priced contracts called power purchase agreements. Because the way the grid works (at least in the United States), this does not mean that the actual electrons generated at these facilities specifically go to Google's facilities, such as its 13 energy-intensive data centers. That isn't always possible. Instead, Google says it seeks to purchase clean energy on the same grid as its data centers and facilities in the United States.

Then Google buys actual power from a utility, and sells its green power back to the grid, "applying" the resulting "renewable energy credits" from its generation to its facilities. The net result of the arrangement is not merely that on a grid where electrons cannot truly be traced, Google can claim greenness. Demasi says the company can also sometimes "hedge" against rising prices for electricity on the grid if it has a fixed, locked-in agreement to buy clean energy over the long term at a relatively low price, and then can sell it back, potentially at a higher one.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"We've seen the price of wind come down by more than 60 per cent and the price of solar come down by more than 80 per cent," Demasi said. "That reduction in price has been one impetus for us being able to scale this approach globally."

The arrangement may sound complex, but Google has argued in a detailed white paper that from the perspective of the energy system as a whole, "there is no appreciable difference between putting a wind farm or solar facility behind our meter or on the grid. At best the difference is one of appearance (Google would "look greener") and at worst it reduces the impact of our investment because a project built in a less favorable location would generate less energy over its life."

In the same paper, Google notes that what it strives for above all is "additionality," meaning that its actions cause there to be more wind or solar energy in the world than there would be otherwise.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Google is not the only tech company, or the only major company for that matter, that has made renewable energy purchases a key part of what it does. Apple, for instance, has also announced major clean energy buys in the United States and China. Other major buyers include Microsoft and Facebook.

"You're seeing a number of companies in tech, a number of countries outside of tech, who are all following this path," Demasi said. "Developers will tell you that a very large proportion of their new projects are coming from corporate."

Discover more

Business

EU clears $36.5b Microsoft-LinkedIn deal

07 Dec 12:59 AM
Save

    Share this article

Latest from Energy

Premium
Telecommunications

Morrison pockets $456m in fees as Infratil makes net loss of $261.3m

28 May 04:23 AM
Premium
Energy

Power shift: How Meridian's $186m battery will influence energy market

25 May 12:00 AM
Premium
Energy

Why the Government's $200m gas move marks a major shift in energy policy

22 May 04:36 AM

Gold demand soars amid global turmoil

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Energy

Premium
Morrison pockets $456m in fees as Infratil makes net loss of $261.3m

Morrison pockets $456m in fees as Infratil makes net loss of $261.3m

28 May 04:23 AM

The NZSA says past changes make a fee more palatable but clearer disclosure's needed.

Premium
Power shift: How Meridian's $186m battery will influence energy market

Power shift: How Meridian's $186m battery will influence energy market

25 May 12:00 AM
Premium
Why the Government's $200m gas move marks a major shift in energy policy

Why the Government's $200m gas move marks a major shift in energy policy

22 May 04:36 AM
Premium
Govt offers $200m for would-be gas investors

Govt offers $200m for would-be gas investors

22 May 02:41 AM
Explore the hidden gems of NSW
sponsored

Explore the hidden gems of NSW

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • What the Actual
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven CarGuide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP