Google Energy

Google Energy LLC is a subsidiary company of Alphabet Inc., which was created to reduce costs of energy consumption of the Google Group, and subsequently to produce and sell clean energy. The division also allows it to take advantage of projects funded through the philanthropic Google.org.

Google Energy LLC
IndustryPower generation
FoundedDecember 16, 2009 (2009-12-16)[1]
ProductsRenewable energy
ParentAlphabet Inc.
Websiteenvironment.google

Operations

By 2007 Google had invested a substantial amount of money in wind, solar, solar thermal, and geothermal projects, including a 1.6 MW solar installation pilot project at its headquarters. In 2010 Google Energy made its first investment in a renewable-energy project, putting up US$38.8 million for two wind farms in North Dakota. The company announced that the two locations will generate 169.5 MW of power, or enough to supply 55,000 homes. The farms, which were developed by NextEra Energy Resources, will reduce fossil fuel use in the region. NextEra Energy Resources sold Google a twenty percent stake in the project in order to get funding for project development.[2] In addition, on July 30, 2010, Google Energy agreed to purchase 114 MW of Iowa wind energy from NextEra Energy at a fixed rate for 20 years.[3][4][5][6] The corporation plans to primarily use the electricity for Google's data centers, but it may also be sold on the open market.

In 2010 Google Energy, together with a group of other investors, announced a plan to build the Atlantic Wind Connection, an undersea cable off the Atlantic coast to connect future offshore wind farms with on-shore transmission grids.[7]

In April 2011, Google extended its partnership with NextEra by signing a 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA) for its Minco II Wind Energy Center.[8] As of 2011, the 100.8-megawatt wind farm is being developed in the Grady and Caddo counties near Minco.[9]

Google invested two rounds in SolarCity, $280 million in 2011 and $300 million in 2015.[10]

On September 17, 2013, the corporation announced its plan to purchase all of the electricity produced by the 240-megawatt Happy Hereford wind farm that will be located near Amarillo, Texas, US upon the completion of the farm's construction. Purchased from the wind farms owners Chermac Energy, Google Energy will sell the electricity from Happy Hereford into the wholesale market in Oklahoma, the location of one of its data centers.[11]

As of 2016, Google has power purchase agreements for 2,600 MW.[12]

DeepMind integration

Google plans to combine its DeepMind AI to optimize the production of energy from its wind farms. Wind power will always suffer from unpredictability. That limits its adoption when compared to other energy sources that can reliably deliver power at a set time. To help solve this problem, last year DeepMind started building algorithms to boost the efficacy of Google's wind farms in the US, it said in a blog post. It trained a neural network on weather forecasts and past turbine data, so it could predict power output 36 hours ahead.[13] Based on this, the model recommends how to allocate power to the grid a full day in advance. This boosted the "value" of Google's wind farms by about 20%, it claims, though it hasn't specified what form that value takes, or how it's measured. While it's only been built and tested out internally so far, it's not hard to imagine Google hoping to sell this technology to wind farm operators.[14]

Authorization to buy and sell energy

In February 2010, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission FERC granted Google an authorization to buy and sell energy at market rates.[15] The order specifically states that Google Energy—a subsidiary of Google—holds the rights "for the sale of energy, capacity, and ancillary services at market-based rates", but acknowledges that neither Google Energy nor its affiliates "own or control any generation or transmission" facilities.[16]

See also

References
  1. Google Energy' subsidiary considers clean power in Cnet News on January 6, 2010
  2. Morrison, Scott; Sweet, Cassandra (May 4, 2010). "Google Invests in Two Wind Farms". The Wall Street Journal.
  3. "Reducing our carbon footprint with the direct purchase of renewable energy". Google Blog.
  4. "Google to use wind energy to power data centers". Reuters. July 20, 2010.
  5. "Google signs 20-year deal with Iowa wind farm". MSNBC.
  6. Bosker, Bianca (July 21, 2010). "Google Buys 20 Years' Worth Of Wind Energy To Power Data Centers". Huffington Post.
  7. Elizabeth Shogren (12 October 2010). "Google Invests In Wind Power Superhighway". NPR. NPR. Retrieved 23 September 2013.
  8. Marks, Jay (April 22, 2011). "Google buys Oklahoma wind power". NewsOK.
  9. Statt, Nick (2016-12-06). "Google just notched a big victory in the fight against climate change". The Verge. Retrieved 2023-10-18.
  10. "Google Wants To Help You Buy Solar Panels For Your House. Seriously. | ThinkProgress". Archived from the original on 2015-02-26.
  11. Todd Woody (18 September 2013). "Google is on the way to quietly becoming an electric utility". Quartz. Retrieved 23 September 2013.
  12. "We're set to reach 100% renewable energy — and it's just the beginning". 6 December 2016.
  13. "Machine learning can boost the value of wind energy". www.deepmind.com. Retrieved 2023-10-18.
  14. Statt, Nick (2019-02-26). "Google and DeepMind are using AI to predict the energy output of wind farms". The Verge. Retrieved 2023-10-18.
  15. Google Energy can now buy and sell energy Archived 2018-12-23 at archive.today, on Cnet.com.
  16. Candace Lombardi (19 February 2010). "Google gets go-ahead to buy, sell energy". Cnet. CBS Interactive Inc. Retrieved 23 September 2013.
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