This week, Google announced that it will go beyond its commitment to offset its carbon footprint with renewable energy generation and will strive to power its data centers and offices using solely carbon-free electricity by 2030. 

To put this commitment in perspective, Google consumes slightly more power each year than residents and businesses in Delaware. Renewable sources accounted for 61 percent of Google’s global hourly electricity usage last year, but this rate varies greatly from facility to facility. For example, the company’s Oklahoma data center uses renewable sources for 96 percent of their energy while renewables account for just 3 percent of their Singapore office’s total energy consumption. 

Google plans to bridge the renewables gap at all its facilities with technological improvements such as overnight solar storage, improved logistics to transport the energy, and new renewable sources like geothermal reservoirs. 

Thanks to carbon credits, wind power funding, and tree planting, Google has been carbon neutral since 2007 but recognizes this is not enough to curb their contribution to climate change. The announcement also comes after 2,000 company employees signed a petition last year to stop Google from selling data storage and other cloud computing tools to oil companies, think tanks, or politicians who deny the existence of climate change.

As a leader in the tech industry and the world, the transition to 100 percent renewable energy use is not only huge in terms of emissions reductions, but also in the message about the urgency of climate change that it sends to the rest of the world. We are excited to see the company continue to implement increased green energy solutions.