Commercial, Solar, Sourcing Renewables  -  June 23, 2022

Google Achieves 66% Carbon-Free Electricity

Google operated at 66% CFE in 2021, which was 5% higher than 2019, but 1% lower than 2020. 

The tech company released its 2021 carbon-free energy percentages (CFE%) for each of Google’s data centers. 

“We expected this kind of short-term fluctuation: building new clean energy is a multi-year process, and our near-term priority is to build strong foundations for long-term CFE growth,” wrote Amanda Peterson Corio, Global Head of Data Center Energy at Google, in a blog post. 

In 2021, Google was the only major cloud provider to match 100% of the electricity consumption of its operations with renewable energy purchases, a goal the company accomplished for the past five years. 

Google signed agreements to buy power from new renewable energy projects with a combined capacity of nearly 1300 MW – expanding its global portfolio by almost 25% in 2021.

The company began purchasing renewable energy in 2010 and has been responsible for more than 60 new clean energy projects with a combined capacity of over 7 gigawatts — about the same as 20 million solar panels.  Google’s goal is to operate on 24/7 carbon-free energy (CFE) by 2030, the last step to fully decarbonize Google’s global operations.

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