Google Set To Use Only Green Energy By 2018

While there are a lot of arguments about whether Google is living up to their “do no evil” slogan or they are actually becoming the biggest evil in the world, there can be no argument that whatever they do next year, they’ll be doing it with green energy. This isn’t exactly a totally new thing for the search engine company. They have actually be a carbon-neutral company for the last decade. But, it’s a big difference between being carbon-neutral and using 100% renewable energy.

So, why are they doing it? Aside from the good PR, they say they want to help make the world better by creating new processes that others can follow. Here’s what Google executive Urs Hölzle had to say:

“We’ve pioneered new energy purchasing models that others can follow” and “helped drive wide-scale global adoption of clean energy. We believe Google can build tools to improve people’s lives while reducing our dependence on natural resources and fossil fuels.”

If you were wondering how much energy the company used to use. Some estimates state that they used around the same amount as San Francisco in 2015. Some of the new features they’ll be adding to their operation include adding air quality sensors to Google Street View vehicles and plans to changing its waste disposal systems so no Google trash ends up in landfills.

Along with solar and various other local technologies, Google has also acquired the Tellenes wind farm in Norway. The believe that that plant alone will provide enough energy to power Google’s data centers in Finland, Belgium, the Netherlands and Ireland.

Source: Inhabitat