Google grabs over 700 MW of renewables in European PPA spree

Google LLC on Thursday announced a string of power purchase agreements (PPAs) in Europe, procuring over 700 MW worth of generation from solar farms and wind farms both at sea and on land across the continent.

The US tech giant said that it is announcing its “largest offshore wind project ever”, having inked PPAs with oil-and-gas major Shell Plc (AMS:SHELL) and Dutch utility Eneco, who own subsidy-free wind farms off the coast of the Netherlands.

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These deals saw Google procure a total of 478 MW from the Hollandse Kust Noord (HKN) V and the Ecowende (Hollandse Kust West VI) offshore wind farms, which Shell and Eneco own through their joint ventures Crosswind and Ecowende, respectively.

Combined with the previous PPAs in the Netherlands, the latest procurement will enable Google to run its Dutch data centres and offices on more than 90% carbon-free energy by 2024, the company said.

Elsewhere in Europe, Google signed PPAs for land-based power production.

In Italy, the tech group entered into an agreement with Italian independent power producer ERG SpA (BIT:ERG) to support its 47-MW Roccapalumba wind farm in Palermo. The wind farm is due to start commercial operation by the end of the first quarter, while the pay-as-produced PPA will run for 20 years, ERG said separately.

In Poland, power producer GoldenPeaks Capital placed 106 MW of solar generation under two PPAs with Google.

Finally in Belgium, Google snapped up 84 MW from 11 new onshore wind farms developed by local energy suppliers Aspiravi and Luminus.

“These efforts are part of our commitment to accelerate the decarbonization of the world’s electricity systems, a core focus of our ambitious goal to run our data centers and office campuses on 24/7 carbon-free energy on every grid where we operate by 2030,” Matt Brittin, Google’s EMEA President, said.