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<div class="block-paragraph_advanced"><p><span style="vertical-align: baseline;">The climate-change clock is ticking, and the carbon-free energy transition needs to happen fast, and at global scale. To help accelerate grid decarbonization worldwide, last year we </span><a href="https://cloud.google.com/blog/topics/sustainability/a-new-approach-to-clean-energy-power-purchasing-agreements"><span style="text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">debuted</span></a><span style="vertical-align: baseline;"> an efficient, smarter way of doing business in the industry. Co-developed with </span><a href="http://www.leveltenenergy.com/post/google-1gw-with-leap" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><span style="text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">LevelTen</span></a><span style="vertical-align: baseline;">, our ambition was to more efficiently execute the way clean energy is bought and sold.</span></p>
<p><span style="vertical-align: baseline;">Today, this ambition is already becoming reality. Within one year of introducing our new approach to the market, we’ve signed power purchase agreements (PPAs) for more than </span><strong style="vertical-align: baseline;">1.5 gigawatts </strong><span style="vertical-align: baseline;">(GW) of clean energy capacity in North America and Europe — bringing us closer to our 2030 goal of running on </span><a href="https://sustainability.google/progress/energy/" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><span style="text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">24/7 carbon-free energy</span></a><span style="vertical-align: baseline;"> (CFE) on every grid where we operate.</span></p>
<p><span style="vertical-align: baseline;">Here’s a look at two recent PPAs that contributed to the 1.5 GW milestone, and how the new approach enabled </span><a href="https://cloud.google.com/blog/topics/sustainability/a-smarter-way-to-buy-clean-energy"><span style="text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">easy, transparent, reliable, and efficient</span></a><span style="vertical-align: baseline;"> contracting in today’s market. </span></p>
<h3><strong style="vertical-align: baseline;">Clean energy to keep pace with digital demand in the U.S. Midwest</strong></h3>
<p><span style="vertical-align: baseline;">Our first transaction was a PPA for 100 megawatts (MW) of solar energy from Cubico Sustainable Investments, contributing to our CFE goals at our data center in Council Bluffs, Iowa. Leaning on our risk-balanced PPA template, developed with feedback from LevelTen and the market, we quickly agreed on common contract provisions with Cubico. LevelTen’s click-through UI helped us finalize project-specific terms, and we landed a final agreement within weeks, instead of months.</span></p>
<p><span style="vertical-align: baseline;">Our Iowa operations had achieved at least 90% CFE when measured on an hourly basis in </span><a href="https://www.gstatic.com/gumdrop/sustainability/carbon-free-energy-data-centers.pdf" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><span style="text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">2020</span></a><span style="vertical-align: baseline;">, </span><a href="https://www.gstatic.com/gumdrop/sustainability/2021-carbon-free-energy-data-centers.pdf" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><span style="text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">2021</span></a><span style="vertical-align: baseline;">, and </span><a href="https://www.gstatic.com/gumdrop/sustainability/google-2023-environmental-report.pdf" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><span style="text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">2022</span></a><span style="vertical-align: baseline;">. The ability to quickly add more carbon-free energy to the electricity grid — like with the Cubico solar project, which has a complementary generation profile to our existing wind portfolio — ultimately helps us keep CFE high in Iowa, even as we </span><a href="https://www.ketv.com/article/google-invests-dollar350-million-to-expand-council-bluffs-campus/44766955" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><span style="text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">grow</span></a><span style="vertical-align: baseline;"> to meet demand for our products and services.</span></p>
<h3><strong style="vertical-align: baseline;">Procurement at the speed of light (well, almost) in the Netherlands</strong></h3>
<p><span style="vertical-align: baseline;">We inked long-term PPAs with </span><a href="https://www.edpr.com/en/news/google-chooses-kronos-solar-long-term-energy-contract-netherlands" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><span style="text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">Kronos Solar EDPR</span></a><span style="vertical-align: baseline;"> to offtake part of the clean energy production from its four photovoltaic plants under development in the Netherlands, partnering for the annual production of more than 49 GWh of clean energy. The solar energy will complement our Dutch investments in </span><a href="https://blog.google/around-the-globe/google-europe/clean-energy-progress/" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><span style="text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">near-shore</span></a><span style="vertical-align: baseline;"> and </span><a href="https://blog.google/outreach-initiatives/sustainability/getting-closer-to-a-carbon-free-future-our-largest-offshore-wind-projects-to-date/" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><span style="text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">offshore</span></a><span style="vertical-align: baseline;"> wind, as well as our existing </span><a href="https://blog.google/outreach-initiatives/sustainability/equitable-clean-energy-transition/" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><span style="text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">partnership</span></a><span style="vertical-align: baseline;"> with </span><a href="https://www.edpr.com/north-america/" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><span style="text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">EDP Renewables North America (EDPR NA)</span></a><span style="vertical-align: baseline;"> in the U.S.</span></p>
<p><span style="vertical-align: baseline;">Even though these PPAs involved a familiar partner and geographic market, traditional procurement practices still would have created time-consuming obstacles, which our accelerated contracting approach helped us sidestep. Within days of closing our request for proposals (RFP), we swiftly moved to project selection and, just two weeks later, worked with Kronos Solar EDPR to reach a signature-ready PPA. </span></p>
<p><span style="vertical-align: baseline;">Only 82 days passed between RFP launch and contract execution. In the world of clean energy procurement, that’s fast — warp-factor-ten fast. </span></p>
<p><span style="vertical-align: baseline;">In addition to helping Google advance our own 24/7 CFE goal, the efficient end-to-end transaction process helped provide Kronos Solar EDPR with the certainties needed to deploy capital for developing the photovoltaic plants, enabling them to lock in costs early. And by spending less time negotiating the PPA itself, both companies freed up resources to focus on harder problems, like finding solutions to address interconnection queue uncertainty.</span></p>
<h3><strong style="vertical-align: baseline;">Leaping toward a new standard </strong></h3>
<p><span style="vertical-align: baseline;">Reaching 1.5 GW with our accelerated approach is a significant milestone, but we’re just getting started. This new way of doing business has become our standard for wind and solar PPAs, and we’re exploring ways to contract for additional types of carbon-free energy generation and storage. </span></p>
<p><span style="vertical-align: baseline;">Now that LevelTen has made the approach — known as LevelTen Energy’s Accelerated Process™ (LEAP) — available to clean energy buyers of all sizes across North America and Europe, we hope other organizations will join us. A carbon-free future is within reach if we work smarter and with more urgency, together. </span></p>
<p><span style="vertical-align: baseline;">To learn more about how the approach works, see our </span><a href="https://youtu.be/CUgK6FdRcWw?si=3iFUo9mohZlzBg7a" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><span style="text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">video</span></a><span style="vertical-align: baseline;">:</span></p></div>
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            <h4 class="uni-related-article-tout__header h-has-bottom-margin">A smarter way to buy clean energy</h4>
            <p class="uni-related-article-tout__body">With LevelTen Energy, we created an approach that shortens PPA execution timelines by about 80%. Here’s a deep dive into how it works.</p>
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published: 2024-03-27 16:00:00.000000000 Z
image: https://storage.googleapis.com/gweb-cloudblog-publish/images/Leap_thumbnail_O.max-600x600.png
entry_id: !ruby/object:Feedjira::Parser::GloballyUniqueIdentifier
  guid: https://cloud.google.com/blog/topics/sustainability/new-power-purchasing-agreement-method-lands-1-gw-clean-energy/
title: 1.5 gigawatts later, our smarter way of buying clean energy is here to stay
categories:
- Sustainability
carlessian_info:
  news_filer_version: 2
  newspaper: Google Cloud Blog
  macro_region: Technology
summary: "<div class=\"block-paragraph_advanced\"><p><span style=\"vertical-align:
  baseline;\">The climate-change clock is ticking, and the carbon-free energy transition
  needs to happen fast, and at global scale. To help accelerate grid decarbonization
  worldwide, last year we </span><a href=\"https://cloud.google.com/blog/topics/sustainability/a-new-approach-to-clean-energy-power-purchasing-agreements\"><span
  style=\"text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;\">debuted</span></a><span
  style=\"vertical-align: baseline;\"> an efficient, smarter way of doing business
  in the industry. Co-developed with </span><a href=\"http://www.leveltenenergy.com/post/google-1gw-with-leap\"
  rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline; vertical-align:
  baseline;\">LevelTen</span></a><span style=\"vertical-align: baseline;\">, our ambition
  was to more efficiently execute the way clean energy is bought and sold.</span></p>\n<p><span
  style=\"vertical-align: baseline;\">Today, this ambition is already becoming reality.
  Within one year of introducing our new approach to the market, we’ve signed power
  purchase agreements (PPAs) for more than </span><strong style=\"vertical-align:
  baseline;\">1.5 gigawatts </strong><span style=\"vertical-align: baseline;\">(GW)
  of clean energy capacity in North America and Europe — bringing us closer to our
  2030 goal of running on </span><a href=\"https://sustainability.google/progress/energy/\"
  rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline; vertical-align:
  baseline;\">24/7 carbon-free energy</span></a><span style=\"vertical-align: baseline;\">
  (CFE) on every grid where we operate.</span></p>\n<p><span style=\"vertical-align:
  baseline;\">Here’s a look at two recent PPAs that contributed to the 1.5 GW milestone,
  and how the new approach enabled </span><a href=\"https://cloud.google.com/blog/topics/sustainability/a-smarter-way-to-buy-clean-energy\"><span
  style=\"text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;\">easy, transparent,
  reliable, and efficient</span></a><span style=\"vertical-align: baseline;\"> contracting
  in today’s market. </span></p>\n<h3><strong style=\"vertical-align: baseline;\">Clean
  energy to keep pace with digital demand in the U.S. Midwest</strong></h3>\n<p><span
  style=\"vertical-align: baseline;\">Our first transaction was a PPA for 100 megawatts
  (MW) of solar energy from Cubico Sustainable Investments, contributing to our CFE
  goals at our data center in Council Bluffs, Iowa. Leaning on our risk-balanced PPA
  template, developed with feedback from LevelTen and the market, we quickly agreed
  on common contract provisions with Cubico. LevelTen’s click-through UI helped us
  finalize project-specific terms, and we landed a final agreement within weeks, instead
  of months.</span></p>\n<p><span style=\"vertical-align: baseline;\">Our Iowa operations
  had achieved at least 90% CFE when measured on an hourly basis in </span><a href=\"https://www.gstatic.com/gumdrop/sustainability/carbon-free-energy-data-centers.pdf\"
  rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline; vertical-align:
  baseline;\">2020</span></a><span style=\"vertical-align: baseline;\">, </span><a
  href=\"https://www.gstatic.com/gumdrop/sustainability/2021-carbon-free-energy-data-centers.pdf\"
  rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline; vertical-align:
  baseline;\">2021</span></a><span style=\"vertical-align: baseline;\">, and </span><a
  href=\"https://www.gstatic.com/gumdrop/sustainability/google-2023-environmental-report.pdf\"
  rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline; vertical-align:
  baseline;\">2022</span></a><span style=\"vertical-align: baseline;\">. The ability
  to quickly add more carbon-free energy to the electricity grid — like with the Cubico
  solar project, which has a complementary generation profile to our existing wind
  portfolio — ultimately helps us keep CFE high in Iowa, even as we </span><a href=\"https://www.ketv.com/article/google-invests-dollar350-million-to-expand-council-bluffs-campus/44766955\"
  rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline; vertical-align:
  baseline;\">grow</span></a><span style=\"vertical-align: baseline;\"> to meet demand
  for our products and services.</span></p>\n<h3><strong style=\"vertical-align: baseline;\">Procurement
  at the speed of light (well, almost) in the Netherlands</strong></h3>\n<p><span
  style=\"vertical-align: baseline;\">We inked long-term PPAs with </span><a href=\"https://www.edpr.com/en/news/google-chooses-kronos-solar-long-term-energy-contract-netherlands\"
  rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline; vertical-align:
  baseline;\">Kronos Solar EDPR</span></a><span style=\"vertical-align: baseline;\">
  to offtake part of the clean energy production from its four photovoltaic plants
  under development in the Netherlands, partnering for the annual production of more
  than 49 GWh of clean energy. The solar energy will complement our Dutch investments
  in </span><a href=\"https://blog.google/around-the-globe/google-europe/clean-energy-progress/\"
  rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline; vertical-align:
  baseline;\">near-shore</span></a><span style=\"vertical-align: baseline;\"> and
  </span><a href=\"https://blog.google/outreach-initiatives/sustainability/getting-closer-to-a-carbon-free-future-our-largest-offshore-wind-projects-to-date/\"
  rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline; vertical-align:
  baseline;\">offshore</span></a><span style=\"vertical-align: baseline;\"> wind,
  as well as our existing </span><a href=\"https://blog.google/outreach-initiatives/sustainability/equitable-clean-energy-transition/\"
  rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline; vertical-align:
  baseline;\">partnership</span></a><span style=\"vertical-align: baseline;\"> with
  </span><a href=\"https://www.edpr.com/north-america/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><span
  style=\"text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;\">EDP Renewables North
  America (EDPR NA)</span></a><span style=\"vertical-align: baseline;\"> in the U.S.</span></p>\n<p><span
  style=\"vertical-align: baseline;\">Even though these PPAs involved a familiar partner
  and geographic market, traditional procurement practices still would have created
  time-consuming obstacles, which our accelerated contracting approach helped us sidestep.
  Within days of closing our request for proposals (RFP), we swiftly moved to project
  selection and, just two weeks later, worked with Kronos Solar EDPR to reach a signature-ready
  PPA. </span></p>\n<p><span style=\"vertical-align: baseline;\">Only 82 days passed
  between RFP launch and contract execution. In the world of clean energy procurement,
  that’s fast — warp-factor-ten fast. </span></p>\n<p><span style=\"vertical-align:
  baseline;\">In addition to helping Google advance our own 24/7 CFE goal, the efficient
  end-to-end transaction process helped provide Kronos Solar EDPR with the certainties
  needed to deploy capital for developing the photovoltaic plants, enabling them to
  lock in costs early. And by spending less time negotiating the PPA itself, both
  companies freed up resources to focus on harder problems, like finding solutions
  to address interconnection queue uncertainty.</span></p>\n<h3><strong style=\"vertical-align:
  baseline;\">Leaping toward a new standard </strong></h3>\n<p><span style=\"vertical-align:
  baseline;\">Reaching 1.5 GW with our accelerated approach is a significant milestone,
  but we’re just getting started. This new way of doing business has become our standard
  for wind and solar PPAs, and we’re exploring ways to contract for additional types
  of carbon-free energy generation and storage. </span></p>\n<p><span style=\"vertical-align:
  baseline;\">Now that LevelTen has made the approach — known as LevelTen Energy’s
  Accelerated Process™ (LEAP) — available to clean energy buyers of all sizes across
  North America and Europe, we hope other organizations will join us. A carbon-free
  future is within reach if we work smarter and with more urgency, together. </span></p>\n<p><span
  style=\"vertical-align: baseline;\">To learn more about how the approach works,
  see our </span><a href=\"https://youtu.be/CUgK6FdRcWw?si=3iFUo9mohZlzBg7a\" rel=\"noopener\"
  target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;\">video</span></a><span
  style=\"vertical-align: baseline;\">:</span></p></div>\n<div class=\"block-video\">\n\n\n\n<div
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  href=\"https://cloud.google.com/blog/topics/sustainability/a-smarter-way-to-buy-clean-energy/\"\n
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  \           <h4 class=\"uni-related-article-tout__header h-has-bottom-margin\">A
  smarter way to buy clean energy</h4>\n            <p class=\"uni-related-article-tout__body\">With
  LevelTen Energy, we created an approach that shortens PPA execution timelines by
  about 80%. Here’s a deep dive into how it works.</p>\n            <div class=\"cta
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url: https://cloud.google.com/blog/topics/sustainability/new-power-purchasing-agreement-method-lands-1-gw-clean-energy/
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