Oil prices continued to fall…
Russia’s crude oil exports dip…
Wind farms and solar panels will provide 100 percent of the energy Google uses to power its business operations by the end of next year, according to a report by The New York Times.
Over the past decade, the California-based giant has secured deals with renewable producers that guarantee Google’s purchase of the energy produced through sponsored wind turbines and solar cells. When the energy firms head to the bank to secure financing for the construction of new turbines or cells, Google’s contracts serve as a major asset.
The ever-increasing amounts of renewable energy make their way back to the electrical grid, through which Google powers its buildings. By next year, the company’s green energy contributions will essentially equate to no net fossil fuel usage from the grid.
“We are the largest corporate purchaser of renewable energy in the world,” Joe Kava, Google’s senior vice president of technical infrastructure, told the Times. “It’s good for the economy, good for business and good for our shareholders.”
Google also worked with the 50,000-acre wind farm in Minco, Oklahoma, to supply electricity to a data center in the same state.
Google’s 2015 consumption of 5.7 terawatt-hours of electricity “is equal to the output of two 500 megawatt coal plants,” Jonathan Koomey, a research fellow at Stanford University’s Steyer-Taylor Center for Energy Policy and Finance, said in an interview. “For one company to be doing this is a very big deal. It means other companies of a similar scale will feel pressure to move.”
Facebook, a company of comparable size and scope, has forged similar purchase-guarantee deals with wind producers in the past. Amazon has shown a preference for the solar power route, with the mega-shopping site expected to fulfill 40 percent of its needs through renewables by the end of the year.
Microsoft has been carbon neutral since 2014, but only through the purchase of carbon offsets and other green projects on the side.
ADVERTISEMENT
Zainab Calcuttawala for Oilprice.com
More Top Reads From Oilprice.com
Zainab Calcuttawala is an American journalist based in Morocco. She completed her undergraduate coursework at the University of Texas at Austin (Hook’em) and reports on…
Now, don't get me wrong -- oil has done a great job for human civilization. But at some point, just like technological progress, we need to move on (I don't see you shoveling horse shit for a living, do you?). Ignoring the extreme left wing, I don't think anyone is calling for closing down all rigs and refineries yesterday. So we need a good transition, preferably trampolining off of cleaner tech like gas (not "clean" coal) while we ween off of oil over the next few decades (sure, gas comes with oil, so whatever).
After all, we all live in a relatively closed system called Earth. Whatever farts we blow in here stays inside, for all of us to smell. Let's not ruin it for ourselves in the meantime, yeah?
But given the fake news era we're in, I'm sure facts, math, and common sense aren't needed -- just something sensational will do.