Global Association for ESG
6 Apr 2023
Ørsted announced signing a 15-year, 150 MW power purchase agreement (PPA) with Google for renewable energy produced by the Helena Wind Farm in Texas. The agreement is the first between Google and Ørsted in the United States, and the second worldwide, following a 2021 offshore wind agreement in Germany.
The 268 MW wind farm, scheduled to be completed in 2022, is part of Ørsted’s 518 MW Helena Energy Center in Bee County, Texas, and is powered by 66 turbines spread across 15,000 acres, supplying enough energy to power an estimated 90,000 homes.
According to the companies, the new agreement will help Google meet its pledge to run all of its data centres, cloud regions, and offices on carbon-free energy (CFE) 24/7 by 2030. Alphabet, Google's parent company, declared a 24/7 CFE goal in 2020, aiming to operate its entire business on carbon-free energy by 2030. Operating on CFE 24 hours a day, seven days a week means matching electricity demand with CFE supply every hour of every day in every region where the business operates. Google announced a partnership with renewable transaction infrastructure provider LevelTen Energy last month to provide a faster and simpler RFP process for PPAs, reducing the time it takes to negotiate and implement deals by around 80%.
Sana Ouji, Google's Energy Lead, stated:
"Building a 24/7 carbon-free energy portfolio necessitates blending various resources to optimise for hourly production, which this project assists us with." We are pleased to continue our collaboration with ørsted and to add this wind project to our existing solar portfolio in ERCOT as we service customers from our Dallas cloud region."
Monica Testa, Ørsted Americas' Head of Origination, added:
"Google's leadership in renewable energy investment and commitment to advancing 24/7 carbon-free energy by 2030 sets a strong example for companies around the world, and we look forward to assisting them in achieving that ambition."