Google has once again impressed the world with the announcement that one of its main European data centers in Finland will be powered completely by a Swedish wind farm.
The decision of the search engine to invest in yet another clean energy project was announced on Tuesday. The construction and operation of the wind farm will be handled by the Swedish wind farm developer O2.
Once fully operational, hopefully in 2015, the wind farm is expected to generate 72MW of electricity, which is more than enough to supply all the required energy to power the data center.
Allianz, the German insurance company, is the funding provider and owner of the project, while Google is the only customer, contracted to buy 100% of the generated energy for 10 years.
A complex infrastructure, which consists of transmission lines between the wind farm and the data center, makes it possible for the energy to be transported.
Google is one of the major energy consumers worldwide. With nearly one ton of energy going to all company’s data centers annually, the company has the potential to be amongst those with highest carbon footprint.
Fortunately, the search engine giant has been generously investing into clean energy projects. One one hand, Google invests in environmental protection, and on the other hand, they are in control of their energy sources.
The company is already involved in quite a number of solar and wind power projects. Experts are convinced that the invested capital will definitely be returned.
