Category Archives: wind

Reducing our carbon footprint with the direct purchase of renewable energy

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Google enters a long term purchase agreement with an Iowa wind farm.

We just completed a substantial 20-year green Power Purchase Agreement that allows us to take responsibility for our footprint and foster true growth in the renewable energy sector. On July 30 we will begin purchasing the clean energy from 114 megawatts of wind generation at the NextEra Energy Resources Story County II facility in Iowa at a predetermined rate for 20 years. Incorporating such a large amount of wind power into our portfolio is tricky (read more about how the deal is structured), but this power is enough to supply several data centers.

via googleblog.blogspot.com

Green Power in China

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When I think of China's energy's future, I usually think coal. Or Three Gorges. Or both.  But as this article in the NYT (via Balloon Juice) highlights, China is positioning itself as a global leader in renewable energy.  

Green Power Takes Root in the Chinese Desert

This year China is on track to pass the United States as the world’s largest market for wind turbines
— after doubling wind power capacity in each of the last four years.
State-owned power companies are competing to see which can build solar
plants fastest, though these projects are 6201_wind_farm_chinamuch smaller than the wind
projects. And other green energy projects, like burning farm waste to
generate electricity, are sprouting up….

….But in March of last year, as power companies began accelerating construction of wind turbines, the government issued a forecast that 10,000 megawatts would actually be installed by the end of next year. And now, just 15 months later, with construction of coal-fired plants having slowed to one a week and still falling, it appears that China will have 30,000 megawatts of wind energy by the end of next year — which was previously the target for 2020, Mr. Li said.

30,000 MW!  By way of comparison, Canada's installed capacity is expected to reach 3000 MW by the end of 2009.