Google buys 12-year output from Norwegian wind power farm

OSLO, Google has bought the entire 12-year power production from a yet-to-be-built Norwegian wind power farm to supply its European data centres with renewable energy, its developers said on Thursday.

Norway’s Zephyr and Norsk Vind Energi said the 160-megawatt capacity onshore Tellenes wind power farm south of Stavanger is expected to be fully operational in late 2017, and when built it would become the largest wind power farm in the Nordic country.

“Google has been carbon-neutral since 2007 and we are committed to powering 100 percent of our operations with renewable energy sources,” said Marc Oman, EU Energy Lead, Google Global Infrastructure.

“Today’s announcement, Google’s first wind power deal in Norway and the largest to date in Europe, is an important step towards that commitment,” he added.

Funds managed by BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, will provide equity financing for the project, the developers said in a statement.

The value of the deal was not disclosed. (Reporting by Nerijus Adomaitis, editing by Terje Solsvik)