Milestone

Google Commits to 24/7 Carbon Free Energy

for all Operations By 2030

Global tech giant Google has announced that it has committed to becoming the first company in the world to operate on 24/7 carbon-free energy in all of its data centres and campuses worldwide. A challenge it considers far greater than the traditional approach of matching energy usage with renewable energy, but it is working on getting it done by 2030. The firm is already the largest global corporate buyer of renewable energy, omething it was doing to match its electricity consumption since 2016. Now, it is moving to make every hour of consumption powered by renewable energy.

Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and parent company Alphabet said “the science is clear: The world must act now if we’re going to avert the worst consequences of climate change.”

Further adding that the firm is committed to doing its part. “Sustainability has been a core value for us since Larry and Sergey founded Google two decades ago. We were the first major company to become carbon neutral in 2007. We were the first major company to match our energy use with 100 percent renewable energy in 2017. We operate the cleanest global cloud in the industry, and we’re the world’s largest corporate purchaser of renewable energy.

“In our third decade of climate action, we are going even further to help build a carbon-free future for everyone.”

The firm will also be investing in

technologies to help its partners and people all over the world make sustainable choices. For example, the firm is investing in manufacturing regions to enable 5 GW of new carbon-free energy, helping 500 cities reduce their carbon emissions and finding new ways to empower 1 billion people through its products.

751.52 MW of RE Capacity Added in August, Total at 88.65 GW: MNRE

The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has issued a monthly summary for the Cabinet for the month of August 2020, detailing all the events and development that took place during the month. The first key point made was that a total of 751.52 MW of renewable (RE) capacity was added during the month, which took India’s total RE generational capacity to 88.65 GW at the end of August.

Wind made up 38 GW of the total, closely followed by solar at 35.74 GW and then 10.17 GW from Bio-power and finally 4.74 GW from small hydro projects. The ministry has revealed that projects of 45.11 GW capacity are at various stages of implementation and that 28.43 GW capacity currently under various stages of bidding.

At the financial friend, the ministry has notified that an expenditure of Rs 1424.33 crore has been incurred up to August 31, 2020. Which is equivalent to roughly 24.7 percent of the budget estimate for the ministry for the year 2020-2021.

The other key event in the month was the time extension of five months, from March 25, 2020, to August 24, 2020, in the scheduled commissioning date of renewable energy products in view of the COVID-19 pandemic. The extension will also apply to all the schemes of MNRE, and the ministry had also asked all state governments to take similar action in respect of RE projects being implemented by them or agencies.

Other key highlights include:

The Solar Energy

Corporation of India (SECI) conducting the e-reverse auction (e-RA) for 970 MW

ISTS-connected wind power projects on August 14, 2020.

A meeting of the standing committee on energy (201920) was held on August 18, 2020, on the subject “Action

Plan for Achievement of 175

GW Renewable Energy

Target.”