Apple, Google, And Facebook Instrumental In North Carolina Clean Energy Push

Image via Apple

Duke Energy, a power company in North Carolina, made an announcement last week that may seem ordinary to some observers. However, the announcement is the culmination of years of efforts for major players in the Internet industry.

The announcement made by Duke Energy was simply that the company had requested permission from the state of North Carolina to sell energy to its customers that was clean energy. Oddly enough, this was restricted in the past due to regulations that restricted it. While this may seem to be a mundane announcement, there are some big companies in the U.S. who have been pushing for this type of move for quite some time.

Google

Google has been pushing to boost its green energy consumption, as it claims that 34 percent of its operations are fueled by green energy. Through the use of solar panels, wind energy, and other clean sources, Google is striving to boost its usage of green energy, and lessen its carbon footprint.
The company purchases green energy from sources near its data centers, hoping to encourage other large corporations to do the same. Google is also heavily invested in green energy projects, including solar facilities in California and Arizona, and a project that is investing in solar energy in South Africa.

Facebook

In 2011, Facebook was able to power about 23 percent of its operations with clean energy. The company released a report in 2012, in an attempt to prompt more transparency from corporations regarding energy consumption. The reports showed that Facebook was hoping to raise that number to 25 percent by 2015.

In the spirit of making that goal a reality, Facebook’s new data center set to open in Iowa in 2015, will run on 100 percent wind energy. Making this type of move, allows the company to dramatically increase its clean energy consumption, and reduce its carbon footprint.

Apple

Apple is perhaps the biggest proponent of clean energy in the Internet and mobile sector. The company owns massive solar farms and fuel cell farms that not only power its North Carolina data centers, but actually return more power than it uses to the power grid, enabling other consumers to utilize clean energy.

Katie Fehrenbacher of GigaOM recently had the opportunity to visit Apple’s Maiden, North Carolina campus and get a first-hand look at the solar farms there. Aside from the solar power, Apple is also heavily invested in fuel cells manufactured by Bloom Energy. The fuel cells run on bio-gas, which is a methane mixture derived from decomposing organic matter. Bio-gas is cleaner than natural gas, but it is also much more expensive to source. Apple has spent millions in its quest for 100 percent clean energy usage, and is close to making the mark. Apple is reportedly run on 75 percent renewable energy, which is much more than Google or Facebook can boast at this point.

Takeaway

While Apple Inc. is the largest perpetuator of clean energy in terms of percentage currently used to power facilities, Google Inc. and Facebook have both instrumental in helping bring about the request from Duke Energy. All three companies have data centers in North Carolina, and all three consume massive amounts of energy. The pressure from corporations like Apple and Google could be just the right tool to get more clean energy service delivered across the U.S.