Google is proposing to pay more than necessary for power in North Carolina to assure that its data center there runs on renewable energy.
In keeping with previous commitments to support renewable energy, Google on Friday announced that Duke Energy, which supplies power to Google’s Lenoir, N.C. data center, has agreed to implement a program to help
large companies like Google buy renewable power.
The program, which has to be approved by the North Carolina Utilities Commission, is described in a white paper that Google has published. It involves an optional “renewable energy tariff” to be paid by businesses that want renewable power and not by consumer utility customers. It coincides with Google’s plan to expand its Lenoir data center.
“Google’s announcement shows what forward-thinking companies can accomplish when they are serious about powering their operations with clean energy,” said Gary Cook, senior IT analyst at Greenpeace International, in a statement. “Before today, even large energy users in North Carolina were only offered dirty energy by Duke Energy: coal, nuclear and gas.”