Google collaborate in 10 year agreement with Eneco

Google has entered a ten year agreement with leading Dutch farm developer Eneco to purchase power from a wind farm being built in Eemshven.

The new wind farm will open in 2016 and is located near its new €600m (£476m) data centre which is under construction at Delfzijl, Netherlands.

The 19-turbine project will be located both onshore and offshore, providing 62MW of capacity to help power the data centre and supply nearby homes. It will also provide 80 jobs for local contractors over the building period of 18months. 

“We promised that our new Eemshaven datacenter would run on renewable energy from day one of operation - and it will,” said Francois Sterin, Director Global Infrastructure. “Power purchase agreements help give wind farm developers like Eneco the economic certainty to invest in new renewable energy generation capacity, which is good for the environment - but also makes great financial sense for companies like Google.”

He continues, "By entering into long-term agreements like this one with wind farm developers, we've been able to increase the amount of renewable energy we consume while helping enable the construction of new renewable energy facilities".

The power purchase agreement is Google’s third contract with a renewable energy developer in northern Europe in the past 18 months, following similar agreements in Sweden and Finland.

“Our agreement with Google is a further endorsement of the potential of wind power and our commitment to sustainable energy”, said Jeroen de Haas, CEO at Eneco. “We’re looking forward to working with Google over the next ten years to help them stay ahead of their commitment to carbon neutrality.”

He also states that the agreement demonstrates the growing interest major companies are showing in sourcing power direct from wind farms. "We are looking forward to the next 10 years working with Google together and look forward to safeguard Google's position as a carbon neutral company".