Tech giant Google is investing $1billion in renewable energies to make its operations totally green. The company hopes to exploit solar energy, wind farms and other forms of alternative energy to power its data centres around the world. Rick Needham, Google's Director of Energy and Sustainability, told reporters: "We've invested over a billion dollars in 15 projects that have the capacity to produce two giga-watts of power around the world." Mr Needham added it was an economic necessity for Google to invest in energy. He said: "Procuring power for ourselves and investing in…renewable power plants…all make business sense. They make sense for us as a company to do. We rely on power for our business."
Mr Needham said Google still has a long way to go before all of its operations are fuelled by renewable energy. He said about 34 per cent of Google's power requirements are sourced from renewables. Needham told reporters it wasn't always easy to meet this target in some parts of the world, saying: "Our goal is to be 100 per cent renewable powered. There are lots of challenges in getting there, not the least of which is operating in many jurisdictions that are in different parts of the world." He added: "At Google we invest in innovative renewable energy projects that have the potential to transform the energy landscape and help provide more clean power to businesses and homes around the world."