Google pledges 24/7 carbon free energy by 2030

In a step to reduce its carbon footprint, Google plans to run its offices and data centers on renewable energy by 2030.

The tech giant on September 14 pledged that by 2030, it will run its entire business on carbon-free energy. The promise commits the tech giant to an even more aggressive program of sourcing clean energy and enabling the infrastructure to make it available even when the sun isn’t shining and the wind isn’t blowing.

It was only last year, they bought 1.6 gigawatts of renewable energy which is the biggest purchase of the same.

Google happens to be the first major company to drop its lifetime net carbon footprint to zero by buying high-quality carbon offsets.

This commitment comes amid record- setting wildfire across the United States driven by increased heat and dry conditions linked to global warming. “The science is clear: The world must act now if we’re going to avert the worst consequences of climate change,” Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and Parent Company Alphabet, wrote in the blog post.

Google’s new commitment is different from the more typical corporate commitments of its rivals such as Amazon, Facebook and Microsoft, and other growing number of companies.

Sundar Pichai said that shifting to round-the-clock carbon free energy will be their biggest sustainability commitment with enormous practical and technical complexity.

Google is also planning to fund tree planting, cutting deals with 500 governments all over the world in an attempt to reduce 1 gigation carbon emissions per year by 2030.

Just how Google will achieve this, and how much it will cost, remain open questions.