Google is preparing to use Norwegian wind power for at least one of its European data centers as soon as September according to a new report. Though it’s likely that Google will be using the wind power for at least one data center in Europe, it could be used for multiple data centers that are located in Belgium, Finland, Ireland, and the Netherlands, though it won’t necessarily be used to power all four of them. What is clear though is that the wind power that is generated from the wind farm will go entirely to Google as part of a deal it signed with the Tellenes Wind Farm that’s set to last for a period of 12 years.
The wind farm has exactly 50 total wind turbines and will start to generate power from them sometime next week but the first round of power generated from the farm will reportedly be sold on the Nord Pool power exchange instead of being used by Google. Furthermore any power generated between now and when Google is supposed to begin receiving power as part of the 12-year deal will be part of the chunk that’s sold off.
This initiative to sell off any power that’s generated between now and early September should make sense as Google doesn’t plan on paying for any power until the farm is completely operational, which isn’t supposed to happen until around that time, but with Tellenes generating power as soon as next week that power will have to go somewhere. The deal between Google and Tellenes will be one of its latest efforts to source its power using renewable energy instead of traditional sources, but it also won’t be its last as Google also reportedly bought out energy output from a Swedish wind farm as well which is set to start operations sometime next year. Although the power from the Tellenes wind farm may be split up across more than one of Google’s data centers in Europe the total amount of wind power to come from the soon to be operating plant is said to be in the amount of 160 megawatts, marking it as Google’s largest European wind farm.