Google will receive power from Norway’s largest wind farm this September, when the wind farm becomes fully operational. That power will be used to supply renewable energy to Google’s European data centers.
The Tellenes wind farm will be the largest in Norway when it is completed and operational, with 50 turbines and 160MW capacity. The power sourced from the Tellenes wind farm will be used to power one or several of the company’s European data centers, located in Ireland, Belgium, Finland, and the Netherlands.
Google signed a deal last year to purchase 100% of the wind farm’s output for the 12 years following initial commercial operations. However, it will not receive the wind power generated when the first turbine begins to generate power, which could be as early as next week.
Olav Rommetveit, a spokesman for Zephyr, the company constructing the farm, said that while Google has an exclusive contract for the wind farm output, it will begin to receive power when the wind farm is operating at full capacity.
He said, “Google will not immediately get the supply. It has an exclusive contract for 12 years and it will begin getting the electricity at some point after commercial operations begin.”
The electricity produced prior to the farm becoming fully operational will be sold on the Nord Pool power exchange.
The purchase of Norwegian wind power for use in another EU member state is made possible by the integrated energy market in Europe. This allows Google to purchase renewable energy in Norway, with a Guarantee of Origin certification, and consume an equivalent amount of renewable energy in a different country.
At the time, Marc Oman, EU Energy Lead for Google Global Infrastructure, said that the purchase of renewable energy from the Tellenes wind farm was central to Google’s green initiatives.
“Google has been carbon-neutral since 2007 and we are committed to powering 100% of our operations with renewable energy sources,” he said. “Today’s announcement, Google’s first wind power deal in Norway and the largest to date in Europe, is an important step towards that commitment.”
At the time the Tellenes wind farm purchase was announced, Google made a similar deal to purchase the entire output of a smaller, 22-turbine wind farm in Sweden, expected to be completed early next year.
