Some (happy) cows on the future site of the wind farm. The cows will still have plenty of room to graze between the turbine. (Credit: Google Green Blog)According to the Official Google Blog, Google agreed to purchase the entire output of the 240 MW Happy Hereford wind farm outside of Amarillo, Texas. This agreement represents company’s fifth long-term agreement and the largest commitment yet. Google has now contracted for more than 570 MW of wind energy, which is enough energy to power approximately 170,000 U.S. Households.
The Happy Hereford wind farm, which is expected to start producing energy in late 2014, is being developed by Chermac Energy, a small, Native American-owned company based in Oklahoma. The wind farm will provide energy to the Southwest Power Pool (SPP), the regional grid that serves Mayes County, Okla. data center.
The structure of this agreement is similar to the earlier commitments in Iowa and Oklahoma. Due to the current structure of the market, Google can’t actually send the electricity directly from Happy Hereford to one of its data centers (it would be extremely impractical as it would require new transmission lines), but the impact on company’s overall carbon footprint and the amount of renewable energy on the grid will be the same as if it was consumed by Google. The energy itself will be sold to the Oklahoma energy market, and Google will be able to claim carbon deductions.
