Utilities, Commercial, Sourcing Renewables, Wind  -  January 9, 2018

Report outlines Facebook's clean energy strategy

"Facebook is Greening the Grid," a recent article in American Builder Today, tracks the progress of the 2-billion user’s new data center in Omaha, Neb., as they work with Omaha Public Power District to source energy from wind farms within the state. This project is only the latest taken by the 2-billion-user strong company as it moves to achieve a goal of 100% cleaner energy sourcing at all its distributed data centers.

The Nebraska location is one of nine dedicated data centers operated by Facebook, with additional servers co-located at facilities leased by the company.

Noting the importance of their partnership with OPPD, Peter Freed, Facebook’s renewable energy manager, was quoted in the article as saying: 'Utilities no longer consider renewables as a problem. They recognize that this kind of energy sourcing is attractive to companies like Facebook and that it’s a positive for local markets.'

He added that it is important for utilities to approach renewables and the infrastructure to support them with a broad outlook. "It’s super important for them to not have a narrow, Facebook-only solution," Freed says.

The article also notes other advantages arising from these projects, as the renewable energy infrastructure developed by Facebook benefits other energy producers and end users, while supporting the local economies in locations where data centers are built.

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