Google wants to go 100 percent green by 2025

Google announced its intention to go fully renewable by 2025. The search giant will double the use of green energy to power not only its datacenters but also its offices and other assets. Nasdaq writes Google's enormous cash flows and power consumption go a long way toward encouraging other firms, including power utilities, to expand or even shift their emphasis on energy sourcing. Google's commitment has spurred utilities like Duke Energy, EDF and RES Group to build new alternative power infrastructure.

The company said it has committed itself to powering its data centers by buying an additional 842 megawatts of clean energy, nearly 700 gigawatts of it from sources in the United States, including solar arrays in North Carolina and wind farms in Oklahoma. It also plans an additional 150 megawatts from a wind farm in Sweden and a solar plant in Chile.

Once all the deals are concluded, Google will be consuming more than 2 gigawatts of clean energy, and aims to use 3.6 gigawatts by 2025. It says it plans to have all its 14 data centers on four continents powered by renewable energy to ensure they operate cleanly as demand rises for the company’s internet search engine, its mapping function, its email host Gmail and its video service YouTube.