The global tech giant has just made the biggest corporate purchase of renewable energy in history.
Organisations of all sizes around the world are pursuing and actioning ways to make their businesses more efficient, sustainable and competitive in 2019. A recent ARENA report stated that in the United States, for example, nearly two-thirds of Fortune 100 and nearly half of Fortune 500 companies have set ambitious renewable energy or related sustainability targets. Seven of the world’s largest companies have said they are aiming to be powered by 100% renewable energy in the medium to long-term.
From an Australian perspective, Mike Cannon-Brookes, CEO of the flourishing enterprise software company Atlassian, made the announcement last month, along with 50 other organisations, that he was pushing his business to become net carbon neutral by 2050.
Technology companies, given their financial, cultural and global weight, are the obvious contenders to be leading the corporate sustainability charge. We recently reported on Apple’s achievement as the top company for installed solar capacity in the United States and now Google has made huge energy headlines of their own – they’ve now become the largest corporate purchaser of renewable energy in the world.
According to the tech giant, ‘This purchase is made up of a 1,600-megawatt (MW) package of agreements and includes 18 new energy deals. Together, these deals will increase our worldwide portfolio of wind and solar agreements by more than 40 percent, to 5,500 MW—equivalent to the capacity of a million solar rooftops. Once all these projects come online, our carbon-free energy portfolio will produce more electricity than places like Washington D.C. or entire countries like Lithuania or Uruguay use each year.’
Google’s latest agreements will also spur the construction of more than $2 billion in new energy infrastructure, including millions of solar panels and hundreds of wind turbines spread across three continents.
Back in Australia, AEMO continues to work closely with industry stakeholders and partners to ensure that the rapid growth in renewable penetration in the National Electricity Market (NEM) is managed effectively, and strategically, so that consumers and businesses can take full advantage of the energy markets of the future.
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*As the system and market operator, we are fuel and technology neutral. The products, services and providers in this content are for illustrative purposes only and are not endorsed by AEMO.