HP inks deal with SunEdison to power its cloud with clean energy

HP ( HPQ ) announced it has signed a 12-year power purchase agreement for 112 megawatts of wind power with SunEdison, Inc.

HP added that the deal puts the firm well on the way to meeting its green goals this year, five years earlier than the 2020 previously stated.

Data centers of HP in Texas – located at Houston, Hockley, Plano and two in Austin – account for roughly 1.5 million square feet space and they support the entire internal global information technology (IT) requirements and the delivery of IT services to a section of HP customers.

“This agreement represents the latest step we are taking on HP’s journey to reduce our carbon footprint across our entire value chain, while creating a stronger, more resilient company and a sustainable world”, Gabi Zedlmayer, vice president and chief progress officer for HP’s Corporate Affairs office, said in a statement.

HP had set itself the target to reduce its dependence on conventional energy by 20 percent (from levels in 2010) by 2020. “At the same time, HP’s commitment allows us to build this project which creates valuable local jobs and ensures Texan electricity customers get cost-effective energy”.

The amount of money the ICT sector in general spends on renewable energy is growing faster than other sectors’ spend, according to a recent report by the USA government’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and compensating for grid power used by massive data centers is one of the major investment drivers.

The energy to be delivered by SunEdison from the South Plains II wind farm will power all of HP’s data centers in Texas.

In February, Google announced a longterm agreement to purchase wind energy to power their Mountain View, California headquarters. Once the wind farm opens next year, TerraForm Power, which operates clean energy power plants, will buy the facility which will be run and managed by SunEdison Services. Iberdrola Renewables will develop the project.