Amazon has signed a new long-term clean energy purchase agreement with RWE, one of Europe’s largest renewable energy developers. The deal is a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) for 110 megawatts (MW) of power. This electricity comes from RWE’s Nordseecluster B offshore wind project in the German North Sea.

RWE and Amazon stated that the contracted power would produce enough clean electricity for over 139,000 German households every year.

For Amazon, the deal supports its climate commitment to reach net-zero carbon across its operations by 2040 under The Climate Pledge. For RWE, the contract helps finance a large new offshore wind build-out and adds a stable, long-term buyer for the project’s output.

Rocco Bräuniger, Amazon Country Manager for Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, stated:

“Germany is transitioning toward a modern, carbon-free energy system, and this agreement with RWE helps advance that vision. As Amazon works toward net-zero carbon by 2040, we continue enabling projects that strengthen Germany’s renewable energy capacity for generations to come.”

Nordseecluster: A Two-Phase Offshore Wind Giant in the North Sea

Nordseecluster is a major offshore wind development that RWE is building in two phases. The project sits in the German North Sea. Nordseecluster B is the phase tied to Amazon’s new 110 MW contract.

According to reporting based on company details, Nordseecluster A has a total capacity of 660 MW and is currently under construction. It is scheduled to begin operations in early 2027. Nordseecluster B adds another 900 MW and is expected to begin commercial operation in 2029.

• RWE said Nordseecluster is a joint project between RWE (51%) and Norges Bank Investment Management (49%).

The Amazon deal is a corporate PPA. That means the tech giant agrees to buy a defined amount of clean electricity tied to a specific project over a long period. These long-term contracts often help developers secure financing because they reduce revenue uncertainty. RWE’s press statement also framed PPAs as important tools for accelerating decarbonization while supporting supply security.

Ulf Kerstin, CCO at RWE Supply & Trading, noted:

“Power Purchase Agreements like this one with Amazon are crucial for accelerating Germany’s decarbonisation while strengthening long-term security of supply. By enabling large-scale offshore projects such as Nordseecluster, we can bring more reliable, carbon-free electricity onto the grid and support a resilient energy system.”

The image below shows RWE’s offshore wind portfolio in the German territory.

Rising Power Demand Meets Long-Term Clean Energy

Amazon’s electricity needs are rising, especially from logistics and fast-growing data infrastructure. Data centers also require reliable electricity 24 hours a day. That creates demand for large amounts of power, and it increases pressure to source cleaner electricity.

Amazon has made carbon-free energy a key part of its climate strategy. The company’s sustainability site states it plans to use more carbon-free energy. This is part of its goal to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2040.

The company has also expanded its renewable energy procurement rapidly. In its 2024 Amazon Sustainability Report, Amazon said that as of January 2025, it had invested in 621 renewable energy projects globally. It said 124 of those projects were added in 2024. Together, these projects represent 34 gigawatts (GW) of carbon-free energy capacity.

Amazon reported that for the second year in a row, it matched 100% of the electricity used in its global operations with renewable energy. This was highlighted in its 2024 report and summaries. This does not mean every Amazon site runs on renewables every hour.

The company usually buys enough renewable energy to cover its yearly electricity use. This is done through PPAs and certificates, which vary by region and structure.

In Germany, Amazon has built a growing clean energy portfolio. RWE and Amazon said the Nordseecluster agreement is the tech company’s fourth large-scale offshore wind PPA in Germany.

Amazon also has six on-site solar projects in the country. Together, Amazon’s 10 renewable projects in Germany total more than 790 MW of capacity. When fully operational, they should generate enough renewable electricity to power over 1,000,000 German homes each year.

That “homes powered” figure is an equivalency used to help readers understand scale. It does not mean Amazon supplies those homes directly. It means the wind and solar output from these projects is similar to what many households would use.

Amazon’s Net Zero Goals: Powering Growth While Cutting Carbon

Amazon has pledged to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2040. This goal is part of The Climate Pledge, which it helped create in 2019 with Global Optimism. The goal is ten years ahead of the Paris Agreement’s target. More than 500 companies have now signed the pledge.

In its 2024 Sustainability Report, Amazon announced it matched 100% of the electricity used in its global operations with renewable energy. This is the second year in a row it achieved this goal, hitting the target five years early. 

Amazon’s total carbon emissions increased from about 64.4 million tonnes of CO₂e in 2023 to around 68.3 million tonnes of CO₂e in 2024. This rise is partly due to business growth and the expansion of data centers. However, the company reduced its carbon intensity (emissions per dollar of sales), showing improved efficiency.

The company is also moving to reduce emissions in other ways. It is growing its electric delivery fleet. It increased from around 19,000 to over 31,000 electric vans in 2024. The goal is to reach at least 100,000 electric delivery vehicles by 2030.

Amazon also works to cut packaging waste, improve energy efficiency, and support suppliers in reducing their emissions. These efforts connect to Amazon’s rising energy demands. This is particularly true as it expands its data centers and logistics sites.

By scaling renewable energy, electrifying transportation, and improving energy efficiency, Amazon aims to balance growth with long-term climate progress.

• MUST READ: Amazon, eBay & Etsy Back Tesla Semis: A New Playbook for Zero-Emission Freight

Corporate PPAs Power the Next Wave of Offshore Wind

Germany continues to expand offshore wind because it can produce large volumes of electricity near major demand centers. Offshore wind also tends to generate more consistently than onshore wind, although it still varies with weather and season.

Corporate PPAs have become an important part of this market. They add demand from buyers beyond utilities and heavy industry. They also help fund projects by guaranteeing long-term revenue streams.

The Amazon–RWE deal also connects to a broader partnership between the two companies. The agreement builds on a Strategic Framework Agreement signed in June 2025. RWE backs Amazon’s goal for carbon-free energy. In return, Amazon helps RWE with digital changes using cloud services, AI, and data analytics from Amazon Web Services (AWS).

This pairing is becoming more common in the clean energy market. Utilities need digital tools to manage grids with higher shares of wind and solar. Tech firms need reliable clean energy for data infrastructure and long-term contracts can serve both sides.

What’s Next? Delivery Timelines, Grids, and the Next Energy Mix

The 110 MW deal adds another major offshore wind purchase to Amazon’s Germany portfolio. It also shows that long-term corporate PPAs remain important for financing offshore wind.

Several practical issues will shape the outcome. Nordseecluster B is due to start operating in 2029, but delays could shift when Amazon receives power. Grid integration is another challenge. Offshore wind output varies, and matching electricity use hour by hour is harder as data center demand grows.

Amazon’s broader energy strategy also matters. By January 2025, it had 621 clean energy projects and 34 GW of carbon-free capacity worldwide. The company is expanding beyond wind and solar, including nuclear investments, to support round-the-clock power needs.

Overall, the Amazon–RWE deal signals continued demand for long-term clean electricity as offshore wind expands in Germany’s North Sea and beyond.

• READ MORE: Amazon’s $38B OpenAI Deal That Sent Its Stock Soaring, Powering the Next Wave of AI Growth

The post Amazon Signs 15-Year Offshore Wind Deal with RWE in Germany as Energy Demand Rises appeared first on Carbon Credits.

Alphabet’s latest quarterly results tell a powerful story. Google is accelerating its artificial intelligence push at historic speed, but that momentum is colliding with the hard physics of energy, emissions, and infrastructure limits. The company is scaling AI faster than any previous technology cycle—yet keeping emissions in check is becoming more complex and uncertain.

This tension between explosive AI growth and ambitious climate goals defines Google’s next decade.

Alphabet’s Blockbuster Quarter Signals a New AI Era

Alphabet closed 2025 with one of its strongest quarters ever. Revenue surged nearly 18% year over year to $113.8 billion, beating analyst expectations. Earnings per share also exceeded forecasts, and net income jumped almost 30%.

Advertising remained the company’s largest revenue driver, while Google Cloud continued its breakout growth. However, YouTube advertising slightly missed expectations, partly due to weaker comparisons against election-driven ad spending in 2024.

The biggest headline, though, came from Alphabet’s spending plans. The company expects $175–$185 billion in capital expenditures in 2026, more than double its recent annual spend. Most of that money will go toward AI infrastructure, cloud capacity, and strategic investments.

This marks one of the largest corporate infrastructure spending waves in tech history.

Gemini and AI Are Reshaping Google’s Core Business

Google’s AI ecosystem is expanding rapidly across products, platforms, and enterprise services.

Gemini now has over 750 million monthly active users, reflecting massive adoption across search, productivity tools, and developer platforms. Google claims it reduced Gemini’s serving costs by 78% in 2025 through optimization and better infrastructure utilization—highlighting how scale economics are starting to kick in.

Search, YouTube, and Cloud are Increasingly AI-driven:

Google’s main businesses performed strongly.

• Search revenue reached around $63 billion, beating analyst expectations.
• YouTube ads earned $11.38 billion, up from $10.47 billion a year earlier.
• Google Cloud stood out with $17.66 billion, growing nearly 48%.
• Subscriptions, platforms, and devices added another $13.58 billion.

AI is driving much of this growth. Search usage hit record levels as new conversational AI features let people ask longer, more interactive questions. Enterprise adoption of AI is also rising fast. Millions of Gemini Enterprise seats were sold in just a few months, showing strong demand for AI tools across industries.

Waymo Expands Autonomous Ride Services

The earnings report also mentioned that Waymo raised its largest investment to date and continues strong growth, providing over 400,000 rides weekly with safety as a priority.

In December, it surpassed 20 million fully autonomous trips and recently launched service in Miami, with plans to expand across the US, UK, and Japan, including airports and freeways.

• ALSO READ: Alphabet (Google) Surpasses Apple in Value: But How About Their Climate Ambitions and Progress?

Full-Year Context

Annual revenue topped $400 billion for the first time, driven by AI momentum like Gemini processing over 10 billion tokens per minute. Operating income was $35.93 billion for the quarter, with net income at $34.46 billion

The broader strategy is clear: AI is becoming the growth engine across Google’s entire stack, from consumer products to enterprise platforms.

GOOGL Stock Reacts to AI Spending Plans

Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL) shares fell slightly to $331.25, down 0.54% on high trading volume of 87 million shares. The stock moved after Alphabet’s earnings were out. It’s up 18% year over year.

Investors are watching the company’s $175–185 billion AI spending plan for 2026, which is driving short-term volatility. Analysts remain positive, with a price target of $344 and a “Strong Buy” rating.

The Hidden Cost: Exploding Energy Demand

Behind this AI expansion lies a massive infrastructure footprint. Training and running large AI models require enormous computing power, and that translates directly into electricity consumption.

Google openly acknowledges that AI is driving non-linear growth in energy demand. Unlike traditional digital services, AI workloads scale unpredictably, especially with the rise of multimodal models, agentic systems, and real-time inference.

This uncertainty makes forecasting emissions trajectories far more difficult. Even with efficiency gains, absolute electricity demand is rising sharply.

Let’s take a closer look at Google’s sustainability progress and see the full picture behind its climate efforts.

Google’s Sustainability Moonshot Under Pressure

Google’s climate ambition is among the most aggressive in corporate history. The company aims to cut combined Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions by 50% by 2030 compared with 2019 levels. Its long-term goal remains net zero across operations and value chains.

There has been real progress:

• Scope 1 emissions declined 8% in 2024.
• Scope 2 emissions dropped 11% through clean energy procurement.
• Data center energy emissions fell 12% due to new carbon-free power projects.

These gains are notable because Google’s electricity consumption grew 27% in a single year. Decoupling growth from emissions is one of the hardest challenges in corporate decarbonization, and Google has partially achieved it.

But the bigger problem sits outside operational emissions.

Scope 3 Emissions: The Biggest Hurdle

Google’s total ambition-based emissions reached 11.5 million tCO₂e in 2024, up 11% year over year and 51% above its 2019 baseline. The main driver is supply chain emissions—Scope 3—which rose 22% year over year.

These emissions come from hardware manufacturing, construction materials, logistics, and third-party services. As Google builds more data centers and buys more AI hardware, supply chain emissions rise almost automatically.

This creates a paradox: AI expansion increases Scope 3 emissions faster than operational decarbonization can offset them.

• SEE MORE: Google Joins ReNew Energy for 150 MW Solar Project in India to Cut Scope 3 Emissions 

Data Center Construction: A Growing Carbon Challenge

One of the fastest-growing emission sources is data center construction. Embodied carbon from steel, concrete, and heavy machinery is becoming a significant part of Google’s footprint.

In 2024, data center construction emissions reached 1.6 million tCO₂e, accounting for 19% of Google’s ambition-based Scope 3 emissions. That figure is expected to rise as AI-driven data center expansion accelerates.

Google is responding with several strategies:

• Standardized data center designs to reduce material use
• Low-carbon concrete and steel to cut embodied emissions by up to 40%
• Electrified construction equipment powered by clean electricity
• Improved space efficiency to maximize infrastructure utilization

These measures can reduce carbon intensity, but they cannot fully offset the scale of new construction.

Policy and Regional Constraints Add Complexity

The company also highlights that policy uncertainty is a major risk. Changes in climate and energy regulations can affect project timelines, costs, and investment decisions.

Regional constraints are equally critical. Many Asia-Pacific markets—key growth regions for Google—lack sufficient carbon-free electricity. Land scarcity, weak renewable resources, and high construction costs make clean energy deployment difficult.

This means AI-driven growth in Asia could significantly increase emissions unless grid decarbonization accelerates.

Google’s Dilemma: AI vs Net-Zero Equation

Alphabet is not an outlier. Every major AI company is facing the same trade-off. AI is becoming core infrastructure for the global economy, but its energy footprint is massive and rising.

Thus, the real question is whether corporate decarbonization can keep pace with AI-driven growth. Three structural tensions stand out:

1. Infrastructure Scale vs Emissions Targets: AI requires massive data center buildouts, which drive Scope 3 emissions.
2. Energy Demand vs Clean Power Supply: Electricity consumption is growing faster than carbon-free power deployment.
3. Corporate Action vs Systemic Constraints: Many challenges, like grid capacity, policy frameworks, and supply chains, are beyond Google’s direct control.

Google’s disclosures offer a rare, transparent look into the carbon cost of the AI revolution. They highlight a broader reality: decarbonizing digital infrastructure is far harder than decarbonizing traditional IT services.

Can it Still Hit Its 2030 Climate Target?

As said before, the tech giant remains committed to cutting emissions by 50% by 2030, and the Science Based Targets initiative has validated its targets. But the path is increasingly narrow.

Operational emissions are trending downward, which is encouraging. The challenge is Scope 3 emissions tied to hardware, construction, and suppliers. Without systemic supply chain decarbonization, absolute emissions could continue rising—even if Google becomes more efficient per unit of compute.

However, its net-zero ambition is still alive, but it now depends as much on global energy systems, policy frameworks, and supply chains as on its own technology and investments.

Aggressive Investment in Carbon-Free Energy

It is investing heavily in clean energy, low-carbon materials, and carbon removal while simultaneously scaling AI faster than any previous technology wave.

Some steps include signing pioneering corporate deals for advanced geothermal and small modular nuclear reactors. The company is also using AI to speed up grid interconnections and optimize power purchasing.

In 2024, Google achieved in nine of its 20 data center grid regions. That’s a significant milestone, but it still falls short of its 24/7 carbon-free energy ambition.

Boosting Carbon Removals 

Google is also expanding its carbon removal portfolio. In 2024, it signed 16 new offtake agreements worth over $100 million, bringing its total removal portfolio to around 782,400 tCO₂e.

That is a 14-fold increase from 2023, but it is still tiny compared to millions of tonnes of annual emissions. Carbon removal is a long-term tool, not a near-term solution.

All in all, Alphabet’s Q4 results show a company entering a new phase of AI-driven growth. The planned $185 billion annual infrastructure spend underscores how central AI is to Google’s future.

But the sustainability story is becoming more complex. The next decade will test whether AI can scale sustainably—or whether the world’s most advanced tech companies will struggle to keep their climate promises in the age of artificial intelligence.

• FURTHER READING:
• Google Powers U.S. Data Centers with 1.2 GW of Carbon-Free Energy from Clearway
• Tech Giants Like NVIDIA and Google Eye Space to Power AI with Orbital Data Centers

The post Alphabet’s Blockbuster Q4 2025 Signals a New AI Era—But Will It Cloud Its Net-Zero Promise? appeared first on Carbon Credits.

Walmart has crossed a historic financial mark. It became the first traditional retailer to reach a $1 trillion market value, a level previously limited to technology and energy giants.

The milestone followed a strong move in the company’s share price. During recent trading in New York, Walmart’s stock rose by about 1.6% and hit an intraday high of around $126 per share.

That gain pushed the Bentonville, Arkansas-based retailer past the trillion-dollar threshold. Since the start of the year, Walmart’s stock has been up about 12%, far ahead of the S&P 500, which has gained less than 2% over the same period.

Investors have responded to Walmart’s steady revenue growth, digital expansion, and cost control. At the same time, the company has continued to expand its environmental and climate commitments. Given Walmart’s size, those efforts carry weight across global supply chains.

Big Targets for an Even Bigger Footprint

Walmart has set long-term climate targets that cover its own operations and its value chain. The company aims to reach zero greenhouse gas emissions across global operations by 2040, without using carbon offsets. It also plans to source 100% renewable electricity by 2035.

These targets apply to Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions. Scope 1 includes direct emissions from company operations. Scope 2 covers emissions from purchased electricity. Walmart’s strategy includes improving energy efficiency, switching to low-impact refrigerants, and electrifying parts of its vehicle fleet.

Most of Walmart’s emissions sit outside its direct control. Like many large retailers, the bulk of its footprint comes from suppliers, logistics, and product use. To address this, Walmart launched Project Gigaton in 2017. The program set a goal to avoid, reduce, or remove one billion metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions from the global value chain by 2030.

Progress Made, Deadlines Slipping

Walmart’s reporting shows clear progress in several areas.

On clean power, the company said that nearly half of its global electricity use now comes from renewable sources. This includes on-site generation and long-term power purchase agreements tied to wind and solar projects. These steps move Walmart closer to its 2035 renewable energy target.

On emissions, Walmart has reduced Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions by about 18% compared with its 2015 baseline. During this time, the company cut carbon intensity by 45%. This means it emits less for each unit of business activity.

Project Gigaton has also delivered results. Walmart announced it hit its one-billion-ton emissions reduction goal six years early, 1.19 billion metric tons of CO₂e. Over 5,900 suppliers joined in. They helped cut down on energy use, packaging, transportation, and waste.

Still, the path to net zero is not smooth. Walmart has admitted that it probably won’t meet its interim goals. These include reducing Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 35% by 2025 and 65% by 2030, based on 2015 levels. The company has pushed those timelines further out as it faces technical and operational limits.

Where Most Emissions, and Leverage, Live

Supply chains remain Walmart’s biggest climate challenge. In retail, Scope 3 emissions often account for the vast majority of total emissions. Industry research shows that for large retailers, supply chain emissions can make up as much as 90% to 98% of total carbon output.

Project Gigaton targets this gap. It asks suppliers to set goals in six areas, including energy, waste, packaging, agriculture, and logistics. Many suppliers focus on energy efficiency and renewable power, while others work on sustainable sourcing and transport optimization.

With that initiative, emissions intensity in Scope 3 has dropped by about 6.2% since 2022. This shows progress in lowering the carbon intensity of the wider supply chain.

Beyond emissions, Walmart has expanded work on waste reduction and responsible sourcing. The company promotes circular economy practices, aims to cut food waste, and supports sustainable agriculture across key commodities. These efforts link climate goals with land use, water, and biodiversity outcomes.

Transport innovation:

Walmart is investing in new technologies to reduce emissions in transport and logistics. They are focusing on heavy-duty electric vehicles and hydrogen fuel cell forklifts. This comes as transportation emissions have recently increased because Walmart decided to bring more fleet operations in-house.

• RELATED: Walmart (WMT) Expands EV Charging and Boosts Renewable Energy in Its Net-Zero Playbook

Refrigerant upgrades:

The retailer is replacing high-impact refrigerants with lower global warming potential systems. This effort contributed to a 2.4% decrease in refrigerant emissions in 2024, aided by preventive maintenance and specialized technician training.

Packaging challenges and circularity:

Walmart is working to increase recycled content in private-brand packaging. In 2024, recycled content in plastic packaging reached 8%, up from prior years, although it remains below the company’s 2025 goal of 20%. Efforts also include recycling and reuse programs for cardboard and other materials.

When Growth Multiplies the Climate Test

Walmart’s financial scale helps explain both its influence and its difficulty. In its latest fiscal year, the company generated more than $680 billion in revenue, making it the largest retailer in the world.

That scale means even small efficiency gains can lead to large absolute emissions cuts. But it also means that business growth can offset progress if demand rises faster than efficiency improves. Areas such as refrigeration, trucking, and cold-chain logistics remain hard to decarbonize quickly.

Technology limits also play a role. Some low-carbon solutions are still costly or not available at scale. These constraints have slowed progress toward interim targets, even as long-term goals remain in place.

Still, the retail giant continues to work on its sustainability actions spanning energy, supply chains, packaging, climate intensity, and innovation.

A Trillion-Dollar Reminder of Climate Responsibility

Walmart’s rise to a $1 trillion market value highlights how financial performance and sustainability planning now move side by side. The company has invested heavily in clean energy, supplier engagement, and efficiency. It has also been open about where progress has fallen short.

For the wider retail sector, Walmart’s experience offers a clear lesson. Large climate commitments can drive change, but execution takes time, capital, and coordination across thousands of partners. Success depends not only on targets, but on steady delivery and transparent reporting.

As Walmart continues to grow, its climate strategy will remain under scrutiny. The company’s size ensures that progress, delays, and course corrections all carry global impact. In that sense, Walmart’s trillion-dollar milestone is not just a financial marker; it is also a reminder of how closely corporate scale and environmental responsibility are now linked.

• READ MORE: Walmart and Kellanova Partner for Regenerative Rice Farming in Arkansas

The post Walmart Hits $1 Trillion Milestone And Its Climate Footprint Just Got Bigger appeared first on Carbon Credits.

Google has signed a long-term offshore wind power deal in Germany as it expands artificial intelligence and cloud infrastructure across Europe. The agreement is a 15-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with German utility EnBW. It covers 100 megawatts (MW) of electricity from the He Dreiht offshore wind farm in the North Sea.

The deal links Google’s growing electricity demand directly to new renewable generation. It also reflects a wider shift among large technology firms toward long-term clean power contracts tied to specific projects.

Adam Elman, Director of Sustainability EMEA at Google, remarked:

“Meeting the demand for AI infrastructure requires direct investment in the energy systems that make this technology possible. By contracting for new wind power from EnBW, we are bringing more clean energy online in Germany to power our operations, while accelerating the broader transition to a more sustainable electricity grid.”

AI Is Turning Electricity Into a Strategic Asset

According to EnBW, the He Dreiht wind farm will have a total capacity of 960 MW. It will use 64 offshore wind turbines and is expected to connect to the grid by spring 2026. The site is located around 90 kilometers northwest of Borkum and 110 kilometers west of Helgoland.

For Google, the agreement supports its goal of operating on 24/7 carbon-free energy by 2030. This means matching electricity use with carbon-free power every hour of the day, not just on an annual basis.

Google’s power demand is rising quickly. The main driver is artificial intelligence. AI systems need large amounts of computing power, which in turn requires large amounts of electricity.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that data centers used about 415 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity in 2024. That equals around 1.5% of global electricity demand. The IEA also notes that data center demand has grown at a double-digit annual rate in recent years. The same trend is forecasted by an industry report, as shown below.

Germany plays a key role in Google’s European expansion. In late 2025, Google announced plans to invest €5.5 billion in the country between 2026 and 2029. The investment includes a new data center in Dietzenbach, near Frankfurt, and continued development of its Hanau data center campus, which opened in 2023.

Data centers need reliable power around the clock. They also face rising pressure from governments, investors, and customers to reduce emissions. Long-term renewable PPAs help companies manage both issues.

• MUST READ: Environmental Groups Urge U.S. Congress to Pause Data Center Growth as Federal AI Rule Looms

By signing a 15-year contract, Google gains price certainty and supply stability. At the same time, the contract helps EnBW finance a large offshore wind project that adds new clean electricity to Germany’s grid.

A Flagship Wind Farm in the North Sea

Germany already has one of Europe’s largest offshore wind fleets. By the end of 2024, the country had 31 offshore wind farms fully in operation. Installed offshore wind capacity reached about 9.2 gigawatts (GW) in total. Around 7.4 GW sits in the North Sea, while about 1.8 GW is in the Baltic Sea.

He Dreiht is one of the largest offshore wind projects currently under construction in Germany. With 960 MW of capacity, it will add a meaningful share to the national total once it comes online.

The project also reflects a broader trend toward larger offshore turbines. According to industry data, offshore turbines commissioned in Germany in 2024 had an average capacity of 10.2 MW. The first 11 MW turbine entered operation that year, and 15 MW turbines are expected to appear in German waters starting in 2025.

Larger turbines can generate more electricity with fewer units. This can reduce seabed disturbance and installation time. However, it also requires stronger foundations, larger vessels, and more robust grid connections.

For EnBW, He Dreiht is a flagship project. The utility has already signed multiple PPAs for the wind farm with corporate buyers. This shows how offshore wind developers are increasingly relying on long-term corporate demand alongside traditional utility customers.

Why Corporates Are Becoming Power Buyers

Power purchase agreements play a growing role in clean energy finance. A PPA is a contract where a buyer agrees to purchase electricity from a specific project at agreed terms over many years.

For developers, PPAs reduce financial risk. They help secure loans and attract investors by offering predictable revenue. For buyers, PPAs provide access to clean power without owning generation assets.

This model is becoming more common as electricity demand rises and clean energy targets tighten. The IEA reports that global energy investment exceeded $3 trillion in 2024 for the first time. Around $2 trillion of that went into clean energy technologies and infrastructure, including renewables, grids, and storage.

Europe is a key market in this shift. Offshore wind plays a major role because it can produce large volumes of electricity close to industrial and urban centers. Germany plans to keep expanding offshore wind as part of its long-term energy strategy. It plans to expand grid-connected offshore wind power capacity to at least 30 gigawatts by 2030, 40 gigawatts by 2035, and 70 gigawatts by 2045.

Corporate PPAs like Google’s agreement with EnBW help speed up this build-out. They send clear demand signals to developers and help reduce reliance on government subsidies.

From Annual Offsets to 24/7 Clean Power

Google’s long-term climate strategy goes beyond buying renewable energy certificates. The company aims to operate on 24/7 carbon-free energy in every region where it runs data centers and offices.

This approach focuses on real-time matching. It encourages a new, clean generation in the same places where electricity is used. Offshore wind PPAs fit well into this strategy in coastal countries like Germany.

Still, a 100 MW contract covers only part of Google’s total electricity needs. Large data centers can consume hundreds of megawatts on their own. As AI workloads grow, total demand could rise further.

That means Google will likely need a mix of solutions. These may include additional wind and solar PPAs, energy storage, grid upgrades, and partnerships with utilities and governments.

SEE MORE on Google:

• Google Rides the Wind: First Offshore Wind Deal in Asia Pacific For 24/7 Carbon-Free Energy
• Google Powers U.S. Data Centers with 1.2 GW of Carbon-Free Energy from Clearway

Google’s clean energy buying reached a new scale in 2024, as rising AI and digital demand pushed electricity use higher. The company signed contracts for over 8 gigawatts (GW) of new clean energy this year. This is its largest annual procurement ever and double the amount from 2023.

Since 2010, Google has secured over 22 GW of clean energy through more than 170 agreements. This amount is about the same as Portugal’s total renewable power output in 2024. More than 25 projects came online in 2024 alone, adding 2.5 GW of new generation.

Despite a 27% rise in electricity use, Google cut data center energy emissions by 12%. This shows how clean energy purchases support its goal to run on 24/7 carbon-free energy by 2030.

The EnBW agreement shows one way forward. It ties new AI infrastructure directly to new renewable supply. It also spreads investment risk between a technology company and a utility.

Big Tech Is Reshaping How Power Gets Built

Google’s 15-year offshore wind deal highlights a broader shift in how clean energy projects are financed and used. Large corporate buyers are no longer just passive consumers of electricity. They are becoming active players in energy markets.

For Germany, the deal supports offshore wind expansion at a time when power demand is rising from electrification, industry, and digital services. For EnBW, it provides long-term revenue certainty, and for Google, it helps align AI growth with climate goals.

The next phase will test execution, but the direction is clear. As AI drives electricity demand higher, long-term renewable contracts are becoming a central part of energy planning. Google’s offshore wind agreement in Germany is one of the clearest examples of how these trends are coming together.

• READ MORE: AI Demand to Drive $600B From the Big Five for GPU and Data Center Boom by 2026

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