Google is continuing its efforts to go green. The search engine giant has confirmed that it will be completely powered by renewable energy next year.
Inc. reported that Google has been adamant in its efforts to buy renewable energy for about nine years now. In 2007, the company promised to become carbon neutral.
Six years ago, the search engine giant bought all the energy from a wind farm in Iowa. It was enough to power most of its data centers. Last year, Google was able to cover about 44 percent of power that it needs through renewable energy such as from solar and wind sources.
It was clarified, though, that reaching 100 percent will not mean that every office, server and computer in Google will be powered coming from renewable sources. Google will still get electricity from power companies with energy from various sources such as coal, wind, gas, sunlight and hydroelectric dams.
In a blog post last week, Google's senior vice president of technical infrastructure Urs Hölzle announced that the company will reach 100 percent renewable energy for its global operations in 2017. He also revealed that the search engine giant has become the world's largest corporate buyer of renewable power, buying as much as 2.6 gigawatts of wind and solar energy.
"So, we're on track to match our global energy consumption on an annual basis by next year," Hölzle wrote. "But this is just the first step. As we look to the immediate future, we'll continue to pursue these direct contracts as we grow, with an even greater focus on regional renewable energy purchases in places where we have data centers and significant operations."
The company also noted that it will also be broadening its purchases to various energy sources. Its goal is to make clean energy accessible to everyone.
According to The Guardian, tech companies faced criticisms for the carbon footprint left by their operations. It was revealed that these companies are responsible for about 2 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.
