Introduction

Still publicly and firmly committed to ambitious sustainability objectives, Google had a banner year in the carbon-free electricity arena in 2025. The online search giant contracted a record annual 12 gigawatts of clean energy capacity, acquired a renewable energy developer in a high-profile $4.75 billion transaction and continued to make forays into non-intermittent clean technologies. However, in its 2026 environmental report published in June, Google acknowledged a now longer road, paved with AI-related pitfalls, to achieving its full climate ambition.

The Take

With the AI-driven infrastructure boom highlighting the gap between data center power demand and supply, all eyes are on US hyperscalers to assess the durability of their long-standing sustainability commitments. Analyzing Google's power purchase agreement trajectory, its latest environmental report and other energy procurement initiatives paint a picture of a steadfast, all-encompassing embrace of carbon-free electricity. This is arguably happening for two key reasons: Hyperscalers such as Google are scrambling to secure as much energy as possible, and beyond environmental considerations, relying on clean energy ultimately makes business sense.

Sustaining clean energy momentum amid rising AI demand

That is not to say the AI revolution is not having an impact. In short, it forces major players across the sector to secure energy for capacity that simply was not considered just two to three years ago. True to their Silicon Valley startup roots, however, these companies — and, in this particular example, Google — are proving imaginative and nimble. In the last few years, for example, Google has made serious strides outside renewable energy in pursuit of its sustainable power strategy, with major deals and partnerships to secure geothermal, hydro and nuclear capacity. This is not a renunciation of building a robust renewable portfolio. On the contrary, Google appears to be doubling down on this segment with the acquisition of a renewable energy developer and investment in a long-duration battery energy storage company.

With nearly 35 GW of contracted clean energy capacity across the Americas, Europe and Asia-Pacific, Google accounts for about a quarter of the top four (Amazon.com Inc., Google, Meta Platforms Inc. and Microsoft Corp.) US hyperscalers' carbon-free energy portfolio inventoried by S&P Global Energy. This not only underscores Google's commitment to sustainability but also illustrates the online search juggernaut's contributions to decarbonizing power generation.

With physical and virtual power purchase agreements (PPAs) accounting for 90% of the company's tracked clean energy portfolio, Google has effectively helped finance and develop dozens of clean energy projects worldwide through long-term revenue commitments — a type of financial guarantee sought by developers.

Largely fueled by the company's artificial intelligence ambitions, Google's global data center footprint saw its annual electricity consumption rise a dizzying 38.4% in 2025 to reach 42 TWh — more than double its usage in 2022, when OpenAI's ChatGPT made its public AI debut.

Figure 1: Google data center electricity consumption

Amid this explosive growth in energy demand, the average share of carbon-free electricity (CFE) powering Google's global data centers eroded slightly year over year, from 66% in 2024 to 65% in 2025. The company, however, reported a 2% annual decline in operational emissions in 2025 and a 3% year-over-year reduction in Scope 2 emissions — indirect greenhouse gas emissions from purchased electricity.

The CFE metric varies significantly across regions, with a nadir of 13% in Asia-Pacific (slightly up year over year), where Google owns and operates server-housing facilities in land- and resource-constrained, densely populated Singapore and Taiwan, and in Japan. Land scarcity severely restricts the role of low-power-density solar and wind power projects in these markets.

Figure 2: Average Google 2025 CFE across global data center grid regions

But with the bulk of Google's data center expansion unfolding in its home US market, the company recognizes the gap between this trajectory and the pace of grid decarbonization, suggesting that achieving its climate ambition will likely face speed bumps. According to the company's latest environmental report, Google remains "focused on scaling abundant and affordable clean power globally," pointing to continued PPA momentum as well as a departure from traditional renewable energy procurement.

This includes the company's pioneering purchase of granular renewable energy certificates, also known as Granular Certificates, or GCs. Granular Certificates track clean energy at an hourly level, providing precise time, location and environmental impact data for every unit of renewable energy produced. This enables 24/7 CFE matching at the same hour electricity is consumed.

Figure 3: Average Google 2025 CFE across US data center grid regions

Firing on all clean energy cylinders

With the limitations inherent to solar and wind electricity generation — namely, intermittency, which clashes with the 24/7 energy requirements of most data centers — in the past couple of years Google has cast a wider carbon-free energy net to meet the challenge of powering its facilities while staying the course on sustainability.

Nuclear

With nuclear energy being clean and available around the clock, hyperscalers naturally gravitated toward the technology as the dramatic increase in power demand from their server-housing facilities, precipitated by the AI revolution, began to materialize.

Within the advanced nuclear realm, in October 2024 Google signed a Master Plant Development Agreement with Kairos Power to develop and purchase power from 500 MW of small modular nuclear reactor capacity in Tennessee, scheduled to come online between 2030 and 2035.

Underscoring a power strategy arguably centered on leaving no stone unturned, Google made a foray into thus-far elusive nuclear fusion technology, announcing in July 2025 a deal to purchase 200 MW from a planned Commonwealth Fusion Systems nuclear fusion plant in Virginia — the densest data center market in the US — set to begin operations in the early 2030s.

On the traditional nuclear front, in October 2025 Google announced a 25-year PPA with NextEra Energy Inc. for 615 MW of nuclear capacity from the Duane Arnold Energy Center in Palo, Iowa, near Cedar Rapids, beginning with the plant's scheduled restart in 2029. The power is meant to feed Google's growing AI and cloud operations in Iowa. According to 451 Research by S&P Global's Data Center KnowledgeBase, Google's data center capacity is expected to grow more than 55% from current levels by 2030.

Geothermal

In February 2026, Google secured regulatory approval for 150 MW of geothermal power in Nevada. As part of the arrangement, Ormat Technologies Inc. entered a long-term PPA with NV Energy to supply the Nevada utility with new geothermal capacity to come online between 2028 and 2030. The PPA will extend 15 years beyond the commercial operation date of the final project.

For Google, the Ormat/NV Energy agreement builds on a partnership with geothermal developer Fervo Energy Co., which began in 2021. In May of that year, Google announced it would finance a pilot Fervo project in Nevada, which eventually came online in 2023. In 2024, Google proposed a "Clean Transition Tariff" in the Silver State, under which NV Energy would purchase 115 MW from Fervo's Corsac Station Enhanced Geothermal Project in Churchill County, east of Reno, and resell it to Google. Nevada regulators approved the mechanism in 2025. In December 2025, Google invested in a $462 million funding round for Fervo, primarily to develop the 500 MW Fervo Energy Geothermal Project (Cape Station) in Utah.

Hydropower

In a transaction illustrating both Google's power demands and outside-the-box thinking to secure energy that is ideally clean, firm and dispatchable, the company signed a Hydro Framework Agreement (HFA) with Brookfield Asset Management Ltd. in July 2025 for up to 3 GW of hydroelectric capacity across the US. The HFA notably includes a $3 billion, 20-year PPA for a combined 670 MW of capacity from the Holtwood Hydroelectric Plant and Safe Harbor hydro facility in Pennsylvania — a deal that will support Google operations across PJM.

Figure 4: Reported 2025 Google US data center energy efficiency

All-in on renewables

Renewables remain the cornerstone of Google's carbon-free energy strategy, accounting for 83% of the company's tracked contracted capacity as of the writing of this report, including hybrid configurations that largely consist of solar, wind and battery energy storage combinations.

Solar is the technology of choice, representing the largest share of the Silicon Valley giant's clean energy portfolio. In the US, abundant solar resources, available open spaces, falling costs and relatively rapid development timelines are likely to continue to appeal to Google and other hyperscalers, particularly in markets such as Texas and the West — regions with superior insolation levels. The US Southeast, which lags in solar deployment, offers significant upside in carbon-free energy amid strong data center growth in the region.

Figure 5: Tracked Google clean energy portfolio breakout

In July 2026, Google disclosed that it had committed to purchasing the entire output from the first two phases of the upcoming Steel River Energy Center — a massive solar-and-battery-storage hybrid project under development in Arkansas — under a PPA with the project owner and operator, Cypress Creek. Upon final completion, Steel River Energy Center will deliver roughly 2.5 GW of solar capacity and 2.9 GWh of battery storage to the local grid.

To address the challenges of solar and wind generation intermittency, in July 2025 Google announced a commercial partnership with, and investment in, Energy Dome to help deploy the Milan-based company's long-duration energy storage technology globally. According to Energy Dome, its CO2 batteries can store energy and then dispatch it back to grid for 8-24 hours.

Of note, in the first half of 2026, Google arguably moved closer to the "ultimate PPA" by acquiring the data center and energy development business of Intersect Power in a deal announced in December 2025 that included $4.75 billion in cash and the assumption of debt. Through this acquisition, Google secured a pipeline of multiple gigawatts of energy projects, positioning the company to develop energy parks consisting of data centers colocated with on-site generation, bypassing the grid and its interconnection delays.

Summary

Despite the challenges posed by expanding its AI-dedicated data center infrastructure and the resulting surge in power demand, Google is staying the course on its clean energy strategy, and Scope 2 emissions appear to be under control. The company, however, now acknowledges that its full decarbonization journey may be a bit bumpier than initially anticipated.

Scope 3 emissions are escalating, with a 25% annual surge in 2025, driven in part by the company's data center buildout. Scope 3 emissions are indirect greenhouse gas emissions from a company's value chain — not from its own operations — such as purchased goods, transportation and the use of sold products.

Ultimately, Google's carbon-free energy strategy is more than an environmental initiative. In its latest environmental report, the company emphasized the business rationale of moving away from conventional generation. In a context of global energy upheavals, clean energy technologies such as solar, wind, geothermal, hydro or nuclear provide a degree of insulation against the vicissitudes of fossil fuel markets.

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