Google's PPAs take big chunk of Hollandse Kust wind power
Pamela Largue
Posted on: 2 February 2024
Google has signed PPAs with Shell and Eneco to secure 478MW of power from the HKN V and HKW VI wind farms off the Dutch coast.
Google has signed Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) with Shell and Eneco to secure 478MW of power from the HKN V and HKW VI wind farms off the Dutch coast.
It's Google's largest offshore wind project to date and supports the company's goal of powering its offices and data centres with clean power. The company is aiming for net zero operations by 2030.
The Hollandse Kust Noord (HKN) wind farm is located around 18.5km off the coast of the province of North Holland. CrossWind (a joint venture between Shell and Eneco) will install 69 wind turbines, each with a capacity of 11MW.
The Hollandse Kust West (HKW VI) wind farm will be located about 53km off the Dutch coast, near IJmuiden. It is being built by Ecowende, a joint venture between Shell, Chubu and Eneco.
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Google's presence in the Netherlands
Google has also signed another two power purchase agreements in the Netherlands, with Eneco for 153MW and a long-term solar PPA with EDPR.
Google currently has two data centres in the Netherlands, Eemshaven, which opened in 2018, and Middenmeer, which opened in 2020. A third is being built in Winschoten.
According to the internet giant, the centre in Winschoten will be capable of capturing the residual heat from the data centre cooling process to be used in the district heating network.
The location will also be fitted with solar panels on the roof.
At the start of construction at the Winschoten site, Marco Ynema, data centre lead in the Netherlands at Google commented to Dutch IT Channel: "People are increasingly using digital tools, and organizations and governments in the Netherlands are switching to the cloud.
"Google's involvement in the Netherlands is unprecedented...We are proud to have called the Netherlands our home for many years and look forward to many more years to come."
The Dutch Data Centre Association estimates that the current power consumption of data centres in the Netherlands amounts to 2.7 billion KWh. That is 2.3% of the Dutch electricity consumption, which amounts to 113.1 billion kilowatt hours.
