Google’s data center electricity demand has grown by 27 percent over 2024, compared to a 17 percent increase reported last year, according to its latest Environmental Report.

However, the tech giant reported that it had reduced its data center energy emissions by 12 percent in 2024 compared to the previous year, marking the first year-on-year reduction in data center energy emissions since 2019.

Clean energy procurement

Google said that much of this reduction was the result of more than 25 clean energy projects it had contracts with coming online over the calendar year.

The new projects added 2.5GW of new capacity, increasing carbon-free energy usage from 64 to 66 percent on an hourly basis. In addition, the company reported that nine out of 20 grid regions where it owns and operates data centers achieved at least 80 percent carbon-free energy. The decline benefited from broader grid decarbonization across the US and a concerted effort from Google to source clean energy within the same regions as the data centers.

In 2024 alone, Google signed contracts for 8GW of carbon-free power across a range of projects. This marked the largest annual total in its history and more than twice what it procured last year.

Much of the contracted capacity was signed through the auspices of Power Purchase Agreements (PPA) across a range of jurisdictions. This included a 79.3MW onshore PPA in Virginia, a 35MW onshore wind PPA in Spain, two major PPAs in India, and a novel waste wood recycling PPA in Singapore.

Google also piloted several new contract structures for its clean energy procurement process. Notable examples include the Clean Transition Tariff, a utility-rate mechanism that provides for long-term investment in clean power whenever it’s needed, and a front-of-meter colocation agreement with Intersect Power to develop data centers and grid-connected renewable infrastructure side by side.

Outside the traditional renewable energy market, Google also invested in emerging technologies as a means to support their long-term commercialization. Most notably in its backing of small modular reactor developer Karios Power and a deal with Fervo Energy to procure 115MW of geothermal power in Nevada.

Overall, Google has signed more than 170 clean energy generation contracts, including for more than 17.3GW in the US, 4.5GW in Europe, 400MW in Latin America, and 300MW in Asia Pacific.

Efficiency advances

Google also made strides in data center power efficiency, reporting that its data centers now deliver six times more computing power per unit of electricity than five years ago.

A crucial factor in this was the deployment of its seventh-generation Tensor Processing Unit (TPU), Ironwood, which Google says is 30 times more power efficient than its first Cloud TPU released in 2018. In addition, 2024 saw the deployment of its Axoin Processors, which promise to be 60 percent more energy efficient than comparable CPUs.

As a result, for the first time in six years, Google reported that its average annual power usage effectiveness (PUE) for its global fleet of data centers dropped below 1.10 to 1.09.

Water usage

In the report, Google revealed that during 2024, its water stewardship projects replenished approximately 4.5 billion gallons of water (17 billion liters), covering 64 percent of its freshwater consumption. This is a significant rise from last year, when it only achieved an 18 percent replenishment rate.

The progress is part of a broader goal to replenish 120 percent of the freshwater volume it consumes across its offices and data centers by 2030. During 2024, the company added 38 new water stewardship projects, adding to a portfolio of 112 projects.

However, things were not all smooth sailing for the tech giant. In September, Google was forced to halt plans for a data center in Chile due to concerns over its water-intensive cooling systems.

Offsets

In the carbon credit market, Google significantly expanded its portfolio, signing 16 offtake deals for a total of approximately 728,300 tons CO2e of removal credits. This included deals with the enhanced rock weathering firm Terradot, direct air capture company Holocene, and an $35 million commitment to various carbon capture projects.

The company also partnered with Meta, Microsoft, and Salesforce to form the Symbiosis Coalition, an advance market commitment for nature-based removal credits in the voluntary carbon market.

The companies have collectively committed to contract up to 20 million tons in nature-based carbon removal credits by 2030.

Scope 3?

Scope 3 emissions remain the biggest barrier for Google in its drive to decarbonization. In 2024, its total Scope 3 emissions grew by 22 percent compared to the year prior, due to increases in data center capacity delivery, namely, emissions generated from the manufacturing and assembly of technical infrastructure hardware and their logistics, as well as from data center construction.

In total, in 2024, Scope 3 represented 73 percent of its total 2024 carbon footprint, leading to the company’s combined Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions to increase by 11 percent compared to last year, emitting a combined 11.5 million tons of CO2e.

In order to tackle these emissions, Google has outlined two areas where it aims to support suppliers in emission reductions: clean electricity for our supply chain and low-carbon data center construction.

Through the Google Clean Energy Addendum (CEA), the company is asking suppliers to commit to achieving a 100 percent clean electricity match by the end of 2029 for the electricity they use to manufacture Google products. According to Google, many of its key suppliers have signed up to the CEA.

In addition, Google has committed to supporting more carbon-aware data center design, focusing on efficiency and modular scalability to meet our computing needs. The company claims that optimization efforts could reduce the embodied carbon emissions intensity of a data center building by around 9 percent.

Finally, Google has committed to using low-carbon construction materials for its data centers, which it claims has the potential to reduce the embodied carbon emissions from data center construction by up to 40 percent.