Google has signed an agreement with the Grand River Dam Authority (GRDA) to supply its Mayes Country, Oklahoma data centre with 48 megawatts of wind energy from the Canadian Hills Wind Project in Oklahoma in the United States. “This agreement… is a milestone for Google because it’s a little different from the previous power purchase agreements (PPAs) we’ve signed, where we agreed to buy the energy directly from the developer who built the wind farm,” Google director of Global Infrastructure team, Gary Demasi wrote on the Official Google Blog. “This agreement, by contrast, marks the first time we’ve partnered with a utility provider to increase the amount of renewable energy powering one of our data centres.” Google will pay GRDA a premium to buy the renewable energy generated from Canadian Hills Wind project when it goes live later this year, which will bring its total renewable energy footprint to 260 megawatts. Google also released a report this month showing its global power usage effectiveness (PUE) for its data centres this year dropped to its lowest yet, with cooling and other overhead energy to have reduced to just 13 per cent. In November last year, Google decided to give up on its Renewable Energy Cheaper than Coal initiative because it believes “other institutions are better positioned than Google to take this research to the next level”. Google said at the time that the company will no longer continue its research in improving solar power technology, but it will still continue working towards running its data centres more efficiently and will invest more than $850 million in renewable energy technologies. Follow Rebecca Merrett on Twitter: @Rebecca_Merrett Follow CIO Australia on Twitter and Like us on Facebook… Twitter: @CIO_Australia, Facebook: CIO Australia, or take part in the CIO conversation on LinkedIn: CIO Australia Related content brandpost Who’s paying your data integration tax? Reducing your data integration tax will get you one step closer to value—let’s start today. By Sandrine Ghosh Jun 05, 2023 4 mins Data Management feature 13 essential skills for accelerating digital transformation IT leaders too often find themselves behind on business-critical transformation efforts due to gaps in the technical, leadership, and business skills necessary to execute and drive change. By Stephanie Overby Jun 05, 2023 12 mins Digital Transformation IT Skills tip 3 things CIOs must do now to accurately hit net-zero targets More than a third of the world’s largest companies are making their net-zero targets public, yet nearly all will fail to hit them if they don’t double the pace of emissions reduction by 2030. This puts leading executives, CIOs in particul By Diana Bersohn and Mauricio Bermudez-Neubauer Jun 05, 2023 5 mins CIO Accenture Emerging Technology case study Merck Life Sciences banks on RPA to streamline regulatory compliance Automated bots assisted in compliance, thereby enabling the company to increase revenue and save precious human hours, freeing up staff for higher-level tasks. By Yashvendra Singh Jun 05, 2023 5 mins Digital Transformation Robotic Process Automation Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe