24/7 by 2030: Realizing a Carbon-free Future
Google's paper on its goal of running on carbon-free energy every hour on every grid by 2030, and why annual 100% renewable matching falls short.
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Overview
This 2020 Google paper sets out the company's goal of running on carbon-free energy every hour of every day on every grid where it operates by 2030. It starts from a contradiction: Google matched 100% of its global annual electricity with renewables in 2017-2019, yet reached only about 61% on an hourly carbon-free energy (CFE) basis in 2019. Annual matching hides grid carbon in hours without wind or sun.
The paper introduces hourly CFE accounting per data centre and shows large site-to-site variation: in 2019, hourly CFE at Google data centres ranged from 3% in Singapore to 96% in Oklahoma. The spread comes from grid mix and contracted supply. Sources counted as carbon-free are solar, wind, geothermal, hydro and nuclear, with biomass accepted provisionally. The 93-point gap between two data centres of the same company shows why a single company average misleads.
These data motivate strategies built on hourly matching: siting, procurement and load shifting. The paper is a company statement with figures computed for its own data centres; another operator's values will differ. Related frameworks are GHG Protocol Scope 2, ISO/IEC 30134-3 and EN 50600-4-3. The same approach should therefore be recomputed site by site for another operator; Google's 61% is not a universal reference.
Key points
- Matched 100% of global annual electricity with renewables in 2017-2019, but only about 61% hourly CFE in 2019.
- Hourly CFE at data centres in 2019 ranged from 3% (Singapore) to 96% (Oklahoma).
- Goal: 24/7 carbon-free energy on every grid where Google operates by 2030.
- Carbon-free counts solar, wind, geothermal, hydro, nuclear (biomass provisionally).
- Annual 100% renewable matching is judged insufficient.
Using it in design
- Add an "hourly CFE potential" score per candidate grid (grid CFE% plus PPA options) to site selection, beside annual renewable %.
- The carbon calculator should support hourly (8760) matching, not just annual REF, and show the gap.
- When two candidate sites tie on annual renewable %, make hourly CFE the deciding criterion.
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Who should read it
Sustainability teams doing carbon strategy and site selection, and energy procurement planners.
Related standards
- GHG Protocol Scope 2
- ISO/IEC 30134-3
- EN 50600-4-3
Publication details
- Authors
- Publisher
- Year
- 2020
- Document language
- English
- Source type
- Expert / community
- Access
- Free to read
- Licence
- Copyright retained; citation only — the publisher’s terms apply to the original document
Citation
Google (2020). 24/7 by 2030: Realizing a Carbon-free Future. Google. https://www.gstatic.com/gumdrop/sustainability/247-carbon-free-energy.pdf
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