Salesforce has announced two long term wind energy investments in the United States that will help it along the path towards its RE100 goal of using 100% renewable electricity.
Earlier this month the company signed a 12-year purchase agreement for a 24 MW wind farm in Texas, providing 102,000 MWh of renewable electricity annually.
The move follows an earlier announcement by Salesforce in December that it had signed a virtual power purchase agreement (VPPA) for a 40 MW wind farm in West Virginia, expected to generate 125,000 MWh annually.
With both wind farms on track to be operational by December 2016, the agreements are expected to generate more electricity than the company consumed in fiscal year 2015.
“This agreement, coupled with the announcement we made just a few weeks ago, represents the biggest step in our company’s history towards meeting our goal to be powered 100% by renewable energy,” said Chief Financial Officer Mark Hawkins.
“We’re delivering a cleaner cloud by embracing sustainability in every aspect of our business – from how we deliver our products, to our internal operations, to our focus on clean and renewable energy.”
The cloud company joined RE100 last year during Climate Week NYC, publically announcing its commitment to powering all its operations with renewable electricity.
Salesforce leases its data centers and therefore doesn’t consume energy directly, so the company opted for a virtual power purchase agreement which will see the electricity produced under the new agreements added to the nearby grid.
The West Virginia site just happens to be located in a particularly dirty part of the US grid, with much of the energy historically being sourced from coal.
Emily Farnworth, RE100 Campaign Director at The Climate Group said: “It’s fantastic news that Salesforce is buying wind power and adding renewable electricity to the grid. This is a win-win for the company and shows real leadership on climate change. I’m confident that others will recognize the business case and follow suit.”