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Amazon Pursues More Renewable Energy, Following Google, Apple, And Facebook (fortune.com)
An anonymous Slashdot reader writes:
Amazon will open a 100-turbine, 253-megawatt wind farm in Texas by the end of next year -- generating enough energy to power almost 90,000 U.S. homes. Amazon already has wind farms in Indiana, North Carolina, and Ohio (plus a solar farm in Virginia), and 40% of the power for AWS already comes from renewable sources, but Amazon's long-term plan is to raise that to 100%.
But several of the world's largest tech companies are already pursuing their own aggressive renewable energy programs, according to Fortune. Google "has said it's the largest non-utility purchaser of renewable energy in the world. Apple claims that in 2015, 93% of its energy came from renewable sources, and its data centers are already 100% run on renewables (though that claim does rely on carbon trading). Facebook, which also uses Texas wind facilities, is aiming for 50% of its data center power to come from renewables by 2018. Even slightly smaller companies like Salesforce have made big commitments to renewable energy."
Last year for the first time utilities actually bought less than half the power produced by wind farms -- because tech companies, universities, and cities had already locked it down with long-term contracts.
But several of the world's largest tech companies are already pursuing their own aggressive renewable energy programs, according to Fortune. Google "has said it's the largest non-utility purchaser of renewable energy in the world. Apple claims that in 2015, 93% of its energy came from renewable sources, and its data centers are already 100% run on renewables (though that claim does rely on carbon trading). Facebook, which also uses Texas wind facilities, is aiming for 50% of its data center power to come from renewables by 2018. Even slightly smaller companies like Salesforce have made big commitments to renewable energy."
Last year for the first time utilities actually bought less than half the power produced by wind farms -- because tech companies, universities, and cities had already locked it down with long-term contracts.
Last I checked, wind and solar guarantee exactly zero power coincident with demand.
Check again; solar is follows the morning demand curve pretty closely and can be better matched to demand in some markets by facing panels westward.
Some places have very reliable winds and pretty good forecasting, which has gotten much better in the past several years.
So your "zero power coincident" is a gross exaggeration.
Pain is merely failure leaving the body
Also, "demand" is not fixed. With variable pricing, consumers and companies can be incentivized to use power when it is cheap, and conserve when it is not. Many appliances, such as dishwashers, clothes washers, and dryers, have a delay feature. ACs and refrigerators can be pre-chill when power is cheap, and idle their compressors when prices spike.
My city (San Jose, California) has smart meters, and my AC will automatically shutdown if there is a power shortage. I get discounted power at other times for allowing the power company to install the cutoff switch.
My wife has a Tesla, and it is preprogrammed to start charging at 2:30am, when power is cheapest. As electric cars are more widely adopted, they can act like a sponge to soak up surplus power whenever it is available. There are also proposals to have idle electric cars feed power back to the grid during shortages.