Google Green Energy Purchase – 1.5 Gigawatts Capacity Aquired
Google Green Energy Purchase
Over the past 12 months search engine and cloud company Google bought more than 1.5 gigawatts of clean energy capacity across North America and Europe in its aim to scale the amount of ‘carbon-free’ energy currently supplying its data centres.
The acquisition was made through a new Power Purchase Agreement procurement process which has been developed by Google in partnership with LevelTen Energy as part of Google’s ambition “to more efficiently execute the way clean energy is bought and sold”
The framework is known as the LevelTen Energy Accelerated Process (LEAP) and is now available to other companies.
The streamlined LEAP approach marks a significant change from the previously lengthy negotiation process that could take up to a year seeing deals closed in as little as 100 days.
Google said:
“Leaning on our risk-balanced PPA template, developed with feedback from LevelTen and the market, we quickly agreed on common contract provisions with Cubico. LevelTen’s click-through UI helped us finalize project-specific terms, and we landed a final agreement within weeks, instead of months.”
The LEAP approach used for the Google Green Energy Purchase uses standardised contracts and templates to address the risks associated with transactions between buyer and seller such as:
- Performance criteria
- Price fluctuation
- Grid connection
In setting out clear upfront terms and expectations the LEAP process has dramatically reduced negotiation time allowing for faster deal closures.
Amanda Peterson Corio, global head of data center energy at Google said:
“This new way of doing business has become our standard for wind and solar PPAs, and we’re exploring ways to contract for additional types of carbon-free energy generation and storage. LEAP is helping advance our 2030 company-wide goal to run all our data centers on carbon-free energy, every hour of every day. We shared a vision with LevelTen to develop a smarter, more efficient way of doing business in the clean energy industry, and the result has been just that. The approach has already proven a success in both domestic and international markets, and we look forward to expanding the scope soon.”
Google’s long-term goal of operating on carbon-free energy grids by 2030 continues to set the pace for large scale businesses. The development of the streamlined and simplified LEAP approach is a huge step towards achieving these targets for Google and also for facilitating rapid transformation in the renewable energy sector globally.
To learn more about the latest Google Green Energy Purchase and how the LevelTen Energy Accelerated Process (LEAP) approach works, click on their video here:
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