Facebook To Generate Electricity Using Sources Of Renewable Energy
After a two year campaign by Greenpeace, Facebook has announced it will move from coal fired energy generation to sources of renewable energy.
Greenpeace has been campaigning for two years to persuade Facebook to use clean and renewable energy to power its huge datacentres rather than coal generated electricity.
The co-director of the Greenpeace International Climate and Energy programme, Tzeporah Berman, said “This move sets an example for the industry to follow. This shift to clean, safe energy choices will help fight global warming and ensure a stronger economy and healthier communities”.
A previous report by Greenpeace claimed that 53.2% of Facebook’s electricity was generated by coal. Datacentres are consuming an increasing amount of electricity and it’s estimated that the datacentres Facebook uses in the United States consume as much electricity as 30,000 US homes.
Utility Exchange reported in October that Facebook is to build a new datacentre in Sweden which will be powered largely by electricity from sources of renewable energy. Facebook chose Sweden and in particular Lulea in Sweden, because it has the cheapest business electricity prices in Europe as well as being close to sources of hydroelectric power.
Speaking from Facebook’s sustainability programme, Mary Scott Lynn, said the company was looking forward “to a day when our primary energy sources are clean and renewable, and we are working with Greenpeace and others to help bring that day closer. As an important step, our datacentre siting policy now states a preference for access to clean and renewable energy”.
As business electricity prices increase it seems more businesses are looking at ways to reduce their business energy costs. Moving away from coal fired energy generation to sources of renewable energy may be one way of doing this. For example it may be feasible for companies to generate their own electricity from solar power or wind power by installing solar panels and a wind turbine – depending on the size of the company. While it may not generate all the electricity the company needs it may help to cut business electricity costs.