The French energy company Engie announced this Thursday that it has closed a contract with the American giant Google for the purchase of 100 MW of electricity for 12 years in the United Kingdom from the Moray West offshore wind project, off the coast of Scotland. In total, “Engie will supply Google with more than 5 TWh of green energy from the Moray West project” under a PPA (Power Purchase Agreement), a long-term renewable energy contract, the French group announced in a press release. The amount was not disclosed.
A full decarbonization target by 2030
This wind farm with a production capacity of 882 MW, whose commissioning is scheduled for 2025 in the Moray Firth (northeast of Scotland), is one of the development projects of Ocean Winds, a joint-venture dedicated to offshore wind energy , 50 /50 owned by EDPR and Engie.
“This new investment in UK renewables brings us one step closer to our goal of running 100% carbon-free power by 2030, and means that by 2025, Google’s UK business will be running on nearly 90% % carbon-free energy,” Matt Brittin, president of Google EMEA (Europe-Middle East-Africa) said in a joint statement.
Similar associations in Belgium and Germany
This electricity will power Google’s UK data centers and offices, Engie said. “With a load factor of 50%, or the equivalent of half of all the hours of the year, offshore wind represents a much more regular production profile” than onshore wind, explained Jérôme Malka, vice president of Engie GEMS, the entity in charge of procurement and risk management.
This is the third renewable energy purchasing partnership concluded between Google and Engie after Belgium and Germany. This “collaborative work” has also given rise to another partnership related to the development of artificial intelligence tools to optimize renewable production, according to Engie. Engie aims to reach 80 GW of installed renewable capacity by 2030.
Source: BFM TV
