Technology companies have immense power either to push forward a renewable energy revolution, or to tie down the digital economy to traditional, polluting sources of power
(3BL Media/Justmeans) – The stakes in greening the Internet are high. If the Internet were a nation, its electricity demand would currently rank sixth.
Greenpeace recently released a report titled Clicking Clean: A Guide to Building the Green Internet, which identified technology companies that are leading the efforts to build a renewably powered Internet. The report said that Internet companies must work together to push electric utilities and policymakers to provide them with 100 percent renewable energy.
The report found that Apple has maintained aggressive leadership in powering its data centers with renewable energy. Despite rapid growth, the company has managed to maintain its claim of a 100 percent renewably powered cloud for another year, followed by Yahoo, Facebook and Google with 73 percent, 49 percent and 46 percent clean energy respectively.
Apple
The company has built the largest privately-owned solar farms at its North Carolina data center. Apple is working with its utility in Nevada to power its upcoming data center there with solar and geothermal energy, and is purchasing wind energy for its Oregon and California data centers.
Facebook has made major strides since 2012 to emerge as one of the clear green Internet leaders. It has made radical improvements in transparency, and continues to find ways to bring renewable energy to scale to power its data centers in North Carolina and Oregon. The company has also made large wind energy investments in Iowa.
Google’s strong combination of procurement, investment and policy advocacy is helping to green the grid even in areas where the company does not have data center operations. Google continues to move forward to achieve its goal of becoming 100 percent renewably powered, and has set forth clear principles for how it will expand its renewable energy sourcing as it continues to grow.
Yahoo
Yahoo has remained among the top performers in the efforts to green the Internet. It added to the momentum last year with the purchase of 25 MW wind energy from a community wind farm development in Kansas, helping to power its Nebraska data center with renewable energy.
Equinix
Equinix supports a significant portion of the Internet with more than 100 data centers worldwide. The company’s adoption of a long-term commitment to be 100 percent renewably powered is by far the most significant change since Greenpeace last benchmarked the data center sector in 2014.
Salesforce
Salesforce has made progress in powering its overall growth with renewable energy for its most recent data center in the UK. However, it is yet to translate its commitment to a 100 percent renewable electricity supply to the U.S., where it has the majority of its data center footprint.
Rackspace
Rackspace has begun to embrace a leadership role in supporting a digital economy that is powered with renewable energy. The company adopted a commitment to become 100 percent renewably powered in 2012 as part of a forward thinking energy policy, and is now in its early stages of executing this commitment.
IBM
Recent commitments by IBM to increase the amount of renewable energy powering its operations to 20 percent by 2020 are a promising sign that the company is committed to making a “Smarter Planet” that is renewably powered.
Microsoft
Nearly three years after adopting a commitment to be “carbon neutral,” Microsoft has begun to take concrete steps to power its existing data center infrastructure with renewable energy. The recently announced purchase of 175 MW of wind power for its Chicago data center is a clear step in the right direction.
Source: Greenpeace; Eco Watch
Image Credit: Flickr via skipplitt
- See more at: http://www.justmeans.com/blogs/nine-tech-companies-helping-build-renewably-powered-internet#sthash.ZHPbEmdk.dpuf
This article was originally published on Justmeans.com
internet