Google has signed an agreement with Grand River Dam Authority (GRDA) in the US to purchase 48 megawatts of wind energy for its Oklahoma data centre.
Under the deal Grand River Dam Authority will supply wind energy to Google’s Mayes County, Oklahoma data centre, from the Canadian Hills Wind project in west central Oklahoma which is expected to be operational later this year.
Google said it has been negotiating with GRDA to purchase additional renewable energy since the construction of the company’s data centre in Oklahoma in 2011.
Google Technical Infrastructure senior vice president Urs Hoelzle said that this is part of company’s plan to power operations with renewable energy.
"We’ve been working closely with all of our utility partners to find ways to make this happen, and we believe this project will be the first of many utility partnerships to deliver renewable energy to our facilities," Hoelzle said.
The supplementary energy from GRDA will bring the total amount of renewable energy Google has contracted for to over 260 MW.
GRDA CEO Dan Sullivan said: "In addition to increasing Google’s access to renewable energy, we are also offsetting part of GRDA’s wind acquisition cost through the premium Google has agreed to pay."