Google Agrees Swedish Wind Power Deal For Finnish Data Centre

Swedish renewable energy expert Eolus has been contracted to build four wind farms to power Google’s data centre in Hamina, Finland.

The two parties have signed a ten year agreement, under which Eolus will operate and manage the facilities, and the total capacity of 59 megawatts will be produced using wind turbines made by Danish manufacturer Vestas. The cost of the project was not disclosed.

“Our agreement with Google is a further endorsement of the potential of wind power in the Nordic countries,” said Hans-Christian Schulze, deputy CEO of Eolus. “We’re looking forward to building our new wind farms over the year and helping Google stay ahead of its commitment to carbon neutrality.”

Swedish wind power

In 2013, Google made a similar deal with O2, when it agreed to buy all electricity produced by a 24-turbine Swedish wind farm for a decade.

Eolus, named after the ruler of the winds in Greek mythology, is one of the leading wind power developers in Sweden, a country which derives almost a half of its energy from renewable sources.

Under the agreement, the company will build 29 wind turbines at four locations in southern Sweden: Skalleberg, Mungseröd, Ramsnäs and Alered. The choice to spread farms across the country was made to ensure reliability and avoid the risk of natural disasters taking out the infrastructure.

The data centre in Hamina, which will be receiving energy, is located on the shores of the Gulf of Finland. It is a particularly interesting facility because it uses cold seawater, not air, to cool the servers.

“We’re always looking for ways to increase the amount of renewable energy we use,” said Francois Sterin, director of Global Infrastructure at Google. “Long-term power purchase agreements enable wind farm developers to add new generation capacity to the grid – which is good for the environment – but they also make great financial sense for companies like Google.”

Overall, Google has spent more than $1 billion on renewable energy in the past five years.

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