The new slogan in town nowadays is “the future is clean.” Clean or renewable energy advocates seem to have convinced people that the world needs to shift from the traditional way of generating energy, which impacts negatively on our environment, to clean sources.
Solar, wind and ocean current have all proven to be viable, clean and sustainable sources that humanity can depend on to get energy from, rathere than the traditional way of burning fossil fuels.
The latest sector to have ‘bought’ the argument of renewable energy advocates, is the technology industry. Microsoft has announced that it is teaming up with dozens of other tech companies, including Facebook, Google, Alphabet, Amazon and 60 others to back a plan to push for easier access to renewable energy in the United States.
These American tech giants consume electricity at massive rates They use the electricity to power their data centers, so that the cloud can keep running for users. According to statistics on electricity consumption by the tech companies, in 2013 their data centers consumed 2% of all electricity generated in the United States. The figure is said to have tripled the energy they used in 2000. This means their electricity consumption is always rising due to advances made in the tech sector.
Currently, the tech companies are backing an initiative by the Renewable Energy Buyers Alliance (REBA) to help energy buyers and energy providers to strike deals, which will fund renewable capacity in the United States. REBA is an alliance of four environmental non-profit bodies who are working to ensure people have access to clean energy.
REBA is aiming high in the project. It is aiming to add about 60GW of renewable power capacity to the United States grid by 2025. The tech companies have given their complete backing to this ambitious project by REBA.
The tech companies said they want to move towards an Internet world that is entirely powered by renewable energy. According to the tech companies, they are determined to support REBA to lobby policy-makers, get more customers on board, and help to aggregate corporate purchasing, assisting the renewable sector to build ecosystems and scale to meet the demand for renewable energy in the country.
Microsoft, the leader urging fellow tech companies to join the project of REBA, said the company is committed to improving the energy generation of the United States by moving it towards where it will be clean and sustainable.
Director of Energy Strategy at Microsoft, Brian Janous was quoted as saying: “We’re proud to be part of the REBA network and the movement to accelerate the transition to renewable energy. We are committed not only to increasing our purchase of green power, but also to working with new partners to bring even more renewable energy onto the grid where we do business.”
NPR reports that a data company in the state of Nevada has been able to convince the electricity utility company, NV Energy to build new renewable capacity for its project. Microsoft is reportedly to have negotiated an agreement for a new solar farm in Virginia. The company is also said to have invested around $1 billion in data centers in the state of Wyoming, hoping to power them with renewable energy.
Facebook said the REBA project should not be limited to only tech companies, but should also include other companies to open up the doors of renewable energy to everybody.
“We need to develop more new sources of renewable energy, and we need to make it easier for companies of all kinds to use renewable energy. We know from our experience with initiatives like the Open Compute Project that openness and collaboration help everyone move faster, and we’re excited to work with the other founding members of REBA to help green the grid. Together we will all have a much greater impact,” the director of sustainability at Facebook, Bill Weihl said.
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