Norway’s Largest Wind Farm To Power Google Data Centers

A new wind farm in Norway will begin providing electricity to tech giant Google by early September, according to an announcement from holding company Alphabet on Wednesday.

The 50-turbine Tellenes wind farm will produce 160 MW of power – making it the biggest facility of its kind in Norway, and Google’s largest in Europe.

"We'll purchase power as soon as the wind farm becomes fully operational, which we expect will take place in early September 2017," a Google spokesman told Reuters.

Last year, Google contractually agreed to buy 100 percent of Tellenes’ output to partially power its data centers in Finland, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Ireland.

Zephyr, the company constructing the wind farm, said the facility should be operational next week. From then until early September, the farm’s energy will go to the Nord Pool power exchange.

"Google will not immediately get the supply. It has an exclusive contract for 12 years and they will begin getting the electricity at some point after commercial operations begins," said Zephyr CEO Olav Rommetveit.

Microsoft, too, has shown an interest in using wind power to meet the energy needs of its data centers. The tech company announced in November that they are in the process converting their data center in Cheyenne, Wyoming, to rely entirely on wind energy. The software-turned-hardware magnate will be using three wind farms—two in Kansas owned by Allianz Risk Transfer AG, and the other by Black Hills Corp. in Wyoming. The farms will provide Microsoft with 178 megawatts and 59 megawatts of capacity in wind power, respectively.

Corporate promotion of renewable energy is becoming routine for industry leaders. Governments often provide tax cuts to these companies for taking the initiative and aligning their interests with global efforts. Back in November, Bloomberg forecast that the top 50 corporations that purchase solar and wind energy would need to sign another 17.4 gigawatts in purchase agreements by 2025 in order to meet their renewable energy commitments.

By Zainab Calcuttawala for Oilprice.com

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