Google Just Bought Enough Wind Power to Offset 100% of Its Energy Use

Google will buy 536 megawatts of wind power, adding to the company’s already large supply, making it the biggest corporate purchaser of renewable energy, according to a statement Thursday. The Alphabet subsidiary will purchase wind energy from four different power plants: two in South Dakota, one in Iowa and one in Oklahoma. Google announced at the end of last year that it would reach 100% renewable energy in 2017. With these deals, the company has agreed to buy enough power to compensate for all of its energy needs this year, though some of the projects are not yet operational.

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6 Million People in China Went a Week Without Fossil Fuels

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A vast Chinese province of nearly 6 million people has generated all the power it needed for an entire week without using any fossil fuels, according to state-run Chinese media. Qinghai, a Tibetan plateau province in the country’s northwest, derived all of its power from wind, solar, and hydro-electricity from June 17 to June 23. The experiment was part of a trial run by the government to see if the electricity grid could cope without the kind of constant, reliable energy normally provided by fossil fuels.

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The State of Solar – show 11

This podcast takes place at the Renewable Energy World Conference in Austin, Texas. Billed as one the largest renewable energy conferences in the world, there were over 4,000 professionals promoting everything from solar energy, to wind power, to biomass, to geothermal, to ocean power, to biofuels and more. The future definately looks bright.

However, with all the choices we have today, less than 7% of our energy consumption is in renewables. Women of green, we need to change that. And change that now.

Fortunately, my guest is on it. She’s a female force helping to move the needle in solar energy. Nancy Hartsoch is a Vice President at SolFocus, a company that developed concentrator photovoltaic technology that allows for low-cost, clean energy that is scalable and dependable.

In my interview with her, we talked the many choices on the market today and what the main deterrents are for ordinary people to get going with renewable energy. This woman is smart. So listen up!

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