Google has signed Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) to procure solar energy in Nebraska and Texas.

The company has also inked a carbon removal deal in Brazil.

Google signs solar + storage deal in Nebraska

In a blog post this week, the search and cloud giant said it has worked with Omaha Public Power District (OPPD) on a procurement framework that enables Google to supply carbon-free energy to OPPD.

Through this framework, Google has signed a deal with NextEra Energy to offtake from the Pierce County Energy Center; a 420MW solar system and a 680MWh battery energy storage system (BESS) in northeast Nebraska that is expected to come online in 2027.

"The Pierce County Energy Center will support our own 24/7 CFE goal and OPPD’s clean energy ambitions," Google said. "Additionally, we will share the clean energy capacity attributes with OPPD for the benefit of all energy customers in the region."

Google has previously signed a deal to procure energy from 600MW of wind capacity from NextEra Energy Resource’s High Banks Wind Energy Center in Nebraska.

Rebecca Kujawa, president and CEO of NextEra Energy Resources, said: “We’re excited to further our commitment to the state of Nebraska, where NextEra Energy Resources has invested more than $820 million since 2013, while continuing to collaborate with Google. We now have a large and growing portfolio of contracted wind, solar, and storage resources with Google as we help address the significant need for clean, reliable, affordable energy.”

OPPD said it expects to see 100MW of electrical load growth each year for the next five years, up from 4MW of growth annually a few years ago.

“This collaboration is a big step forward in our continuing work to add 3,200MW of power by the end of the decade, with most of the energy coming from renewable energy sources,” said OPPD President and CEO Javier Fernandez. “Pierce County Energy Center supports our commitment to a diverse generation portfolio, which is critical to reliability.”

Google is a major purchaser of renewable energy and is moving towards 24/7 energy matching for its operations.

So far in 2024, Google has signed PPAs in the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Poland, Singapore, Japan, Nevada, Indiana, Texas, and Arizona.

Google signs another PPA in Texas

This week also saw Google sign a solar PPA in Texas.

Elawan Energy S.L. is to supply Google the energy generated by a 37MW solar project in Hill County, Texas. Commercial operations at the farm are expected to commence in 2026.

Part of Japanese financial services group Orix, Elawan operates 1.8GW of renewable energy projects and has approximately 8GW under development.

Google recently announced a $1bn investment plan to expand its Dallas data centers, adding that it had signed 375MW in solar PPAs to support its operations in the Lone Star State. Elawan was named among the renewable providers but details weren't provided.

Google first built a data center in the Midlothian area of Dallas, Texas, in 2019. It launched a Texas cloud region in Dallas in June 2022. The company is developing a second Texas campus in the Red Oak area of Dallas.

Google's carbon removal deal in Brazil

This week also saw Google sign a carbon removal deal in Brazil with Mombak.

"We’re partnering with Google on their first nature-based carbon removal purchase," Mombak said this week. "Google will purchase 50,000 tons of high-quality carbon removal credits from Mombak by 2030, marking their first-ever purchase of nature-based credits and first engagement with Brazilian carbon projects."

Mombak purchases degraded land from farmers and ranchers or partners with them to replant native species in the Amazon rainforest.

“We’re pleased to partner with Mombak on our first purchase of forestry-based carbon removal credits, with an eye to solving a central challenge of this field: ensuring certainty of climate impact,” said Randy Spock, Google’s carbon removal lead. “Looking ahead, we’re excited to build on this deal via our participation in the Symbiosis Coalition.”

Google is part of a carbon removal coalition alongside Meta, Microsoft, and Salesforce that aims to make advance market commitments for nature-based removal credits, including forestry projects. Meta signed its own forestry-based carbon removal deal earlier this week.

Microsoft has signed a number of forestry deals in the last year, including an agroforestry project in Kenya, a reforestation project in Panama, and forestry projects in Brazil and California. One of those Brazilian deals was made through Mombak.

"Seeing Google entering this market represents a vote of confidence in Mombak and the industry at large. This is a really positive sign," said Dan Harburg, CTO at Mombak.

Orange, Digital Realty, and Gibraltar Telecom have previously funded other forestry projects. Equinix and CyrusOne are part of an Orchard initiative in Ireland.

Google is also part of Frontier Climate – a consortium that makes aggregated purchases of carbon capture credits from a number of companies, projects, and technologies – alongside Meta.

Google is also developing its own direct air capture technology to potentially capture carbon at its data centers.