Tech and search engine giant Google is upping its buy into utility-scale renewable energy projects by another 435 MW.
Under a 12-year power purchase agreement (PPA), project owner and operator energyRe will supply electricity and Renewable Energy Credits (RECs) generated from the project to Google to power the equivalent of more than 56,000 homes.
The deal was assisted through LEAP (LevelTen Energy's Accelerated Process), which was co-developed by Google and LevelTen Energy to make clean energy buying and selling more efficient. The project will support Google's 2030 goal to run on 24/7 carbon-free energy on every grid where the company operates.
"As we continue to progress towards our goal to operate every Google campus on clean electricity every hour of every day by 2030, we are always looking for opportunities to accelerate the delivery of new clean power to the grid," said Amanda Peterson Corio, Google Global Head of Data Center Energy, in a statement. "Using our scalable procurement approach, we've been able to collaborate quickly with energyRe to deliver new clean energy to the SPP grid system and support our 24/7 progress in the region."
energyRe's onshore utility-scale portfolio includes 1,520 MW of contracted solar assets and 398 MWh of contracted battery storage assets.
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Google, which is owned by parent company Alphabet Inc., reportedly has totalled at least $4 billion worth of investment in renewable energy production, such as PPAs which help fund solar and wind project development. These include more than 60 utility-scale projects adding up to some 7 GW in electricity capacity going out onto the grid.
Under PPAs, the company facilities usually don’t receive the renewable energy directly from the project. The investment, however, enables project completion and interconnection to decarbonize the utility grid.
Last year, Google also committed to distributed solar projects through a collaboration with EDP Renewables North America Distributed Generation. The deal supported construction of more than 80 new distributed energy solar projects totalling more than 500 MW of capacity.
