Officials with Google and MidAmerican Energy have announced an agreement for MidAmerican Energy to supply Google’s Council Bluffs data center with up to 407 megawatts of wind-sourced energy. The wind power will come from several wind projects that are part of MidAmerican Energy’s Wind VIII program, an initiative under which MidAmerican Energy will bring 1,050 megawatts of new Iowa wind power online by the end of 2015. Officials say the agreement fully supplies the first phase of Google’s facilities in Council Bluffs with 100% renewable wind energy, bundled with and tracked by renewable energy certificates, and will allow additional phases to be supplied with wind-sourced energy as the company grows in Iowa.
Google has been working with MidAmerican Energy to procure additional renewable resources since the construction of Google’s data center in Iowa in 2007, and when MidAmerican Energy filed for approval for Wind VIII it had companies like Google in mind as customers. The agreement represents Google’s sixth and largest renewable energy purchase to date, bringing the total amount of renewable energy Google has contracted for to over one gigawatt (1,000 megawatts).