September 26, 2012, San Francisco, USA—In response to Google’s
announcement that it is purchasing 48 megawatts of wind power for its data
centre in Oklahoma, Greenpeace International Senior IT Analyst Gary Cook
released the following statement:
Google’s
announcement today shows what the most forward-thinking, successful companies
can accomplish when they are serious about powering their operations with clean
energy. Google faced a local grid mix of over 50% coal power for
its Oklahoma data centre. But as a major electricity customer in the state,
Google worked with its local utility to secure a new supply of renewable wind
energy.
As
Google powers more of its data centre fleet with clean energy, it sends a signal
to other IT companies and electric utilities around the world that renewable
energy is not only possible, but is simply smart business in the 21st century
economy.
As
highlighted in this week's New York Times series "The
Cloud Factories" (1), the energy demand of our online world has real-world
impacts, but Google has shown that those impacts can be positive, not negative,
if they bring us more clean energy.
Google’s
announcement also further sharpens the choice that people and businesses have
when deciding what search, mail and cloud platforms to use. While both Google
and Microsoft have committed to being "carbon neutral," unlike Google, Microsoft
has yet to significantly invest in clean energy. Microsoft has
instead continue to build data centres attached to dirty sources of electricity
and sought to mask its dirty energy supply with carbon offsets and renewable
energy credits. If Microsoft wants environmentally-minded customers to choose
Bing, Outlook and its Microsoft Office cloud, it needs to follow Google’s lead
and invest in renewable energy.
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