Google announced its data center energy emissions declined by 12% due to more clean energy projects coming online. 

Despite a 27% increase in electricity demand to power its data centers, the tech company decoupled its operational energy growth from its associated carbon emissions, according to its 10th Environmental Report.

The decline in emissions was the result of over 25 clean energy projects coming online in 2024 that had been contracted as far back as 2019. These projects added 2.5 gigawatts of new clean energy to the grids that served Google’s operations last year. 

Google also announced its investments in renewable energy pushed the company’s carbon-free energy use from 64% to 66% on an hourly basis, powering AI and all products and operations with cleaner energy.

In 2024, Google made its largest-ever procurement of clean energy by adding 8 gigawatts to its portfolio.

The company is focused on building and operating the world’s most energy-efficient data center infrastructure, optimizing its models and hardware to use less electricity and pushing the frontiers of advanced energy development.

According to its report, in 2024, Google data centers used 84% less overhead energy than the industry average, and the company is making AI models better, faster and more efficient through techniques like quantization that have sped up large-language model training efficiency by 39%. 

The company is also actively investing in the creation of next-generation energy solutions like advanced nuclear and enhanced geothermal. 

Google’s five AI-powered products helped others collectively reduce an estimated 26 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent from their own footprints. 

Although Google’s data center energy emissions are down, total emissions — encompassing the activities of third parties in its supply chain — have increased by 11% year-on-year. This is largely driven by the emissions from the company’s own supply chain as it continues to grow while operating globally.