Google To Become Largest Corporate Buyer of Renewable Energy in South Carolina

Google announced Thursday a collaboration with Central Electric Power Cooperative, the not-for-profit wholesale electric service provider to South Carolina’s 20 electric cooperatives, and Berkeley Electric Cooperative, the nonprofit electric utility serving Berkeley, Charleston and Dorchester counties, that will result in the construction of a new 75 MW solar farm in Orangeburg County which will generate 180,000 MWh of renewable energy annually. Google operates a $2.4 billion data center in Berkeley County.

This project will spur $85 million of economic investment.

“Sustainability has been one of Google’s core values from our earliest days,” said Neha Palmer, Director of Operations, Google. “Today’s announcement will add new renewable energy to a grid where we consume electricity, creating new construction jobs and making clean power and cost savings accessible to local communities. We are proud to call the Lowcountry our home and to be collaborating with South Carolina’s electric cooperatives on this project.”

The new solar farm is the largest corporate renewable energy collaboration to date in South Carolina. It will help to diversify Central Electric’s power supply and will provide electricity cost savings for electric cooperative customers, who make up approximately 30% of the Palmetto State’s population. Google will benefit from the project’s environmental attributes, helping to support the company’s commitment to achieving 100% renewable energy for its global operations.

“We enjoy these opportunities to bring together forward-thinking businesses like Google with member-focused electric cooperatives,” said Robert Hochstetler, Central Electric’s CEO. “Solar energy can play an important role for the diversification of our power supply.”

“We support a diverse mix of generation resources that includes both residential and commercial solar,” said Dwayne Cartwright, President & CEO of Berkeley Electric. “Over the years, we have seen large scale solar projects, such as this, become a cost effective source of generation making it a benefit to all of our members.”

The solar farm is part of a larger push by Google to accelerate renewables across the globe. Google recently announced its largest-ever purchase of renewable energy, which will result in more than $2 billion in new solar and wind projects located around the world. This global effort resulted in 18 new energy contracts totaling 1,600 megawatts (MW) of new renewable energy generation across 3 continents Together, these deals will increase the company’s worldwide portfolio of wind and solar agreements by more than 40 percent, to 5,500 MW—equivalent to the capacity of a million solar rooftops.

In all, Google’s renewable energy fleet now stands at 52 projects, driving more than $7 billion in new construction and thousands of related jobs.