Google has announced that it is on target for its data centres and offices to be 100% powered by renewable energy from 2017.
The company, which has 60,000 staff worldwide is already the world's largest corporate buyer of renewable energy. In 2015, Google bought 5.7 terawatt hours (TWh) of renewable electricity. To put this in context, all of the solar panels in the UK generated a total of 7.6TWh in the same year!
So far, Google has used solar and wind energy to reach its 100% renewable target, but the company is open to the idea of using other forms of low-carbon energy, which provide more consistent power and are not dependent on weather conditions or the time of day. Over the next ten years, these could include low-impact hydroelectric energy, sustainable biomass generation or even nuclear energy.
That Google, a company with huge energy requirements, will achieve its 100% renewable energy target really shows the way not just for other large businesses, but also for government buildings, schools and even local communities in the future.