Google to Power Irish Offices & Data Centre with Solar from Power Capital

Ireland-based Power Capital Renewable Energy (PCRE), which delves into the design, development, financing, building and operation of solar power plants, has entered into a power purchase agreement (PPA) with American multinational technology firm Google. The agreement will help power up the data centre and offices of Google in Ireland with solar energy worth 58 MW capacity.

The agreement is for a period of fourteen years and also entails part of the production from a solar farm of 83 MW capacity currently in the process of construction in County Wexford, Ireland. Power Capital will make an investment worth €54m towards site construction and link it into a 110kV substation. The firm is establishing the substation exclusively for the project to connect into the Eirgrid-operated transmission system.

The project got financing in the earlier part of 2023 from AIB and La Banque Postale. It is slated for completion early next year.

Co-Chief Executives and Founders of Power Capital Renewable Energy Justin Brown and Peter Duff stated, “We are very active in the corporate power purchase market and the opportunity to partner with Google on a transaction like this is very significant milestone for us.” They added, ““Understanding the requirements and aligning the interests of both companies to achieve the desired outcome has resulted in a further 83MW of solar energy being connected to the grid, reducing Ireland’s carbon emissions, and helping reach the 2030 targets.”

Data center energy senior lead at Google Ainhoa Anda remarked, “Climate change is one of the biggest challenges of our time, but we feel that technology can be part of the solution. That’s a central motivation behind our goal to operate on carbon-free energy every hour of every day by 2030,” while adding, “We’re excited to collaborate with Power Capital Renewable Energy for our first long-term renewable energy deal in Ireland because deals like these take us one step closer to a carbon-free future by helping to add new clean energy sources to Ireland’s grid.”

Google has been constantly ramping up its renewable energy portfolio. Recently, it joined forces with Apex Clean Energy for 189 MW worth of capacity for the Timbermill Wind project. The wind project will be established in North Carolina, USA. Earlier, EDPR North America Distributed Generation LLC and the global IT conglomerate collaborated to support more than 80 distributed solar PV projects totalling 500 MW in the USA.