Google’s new data centers in the U.S. will run on 413 megawatts solar power

Google has signed a deal with the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) to purchase the output of several new solar farms totaling up to 413 megawatts.

The projects will produce enough electricity equivalent to 65,000 home rooftop solar systems—and will consist of over 1.6 million solar panels.

It’s no surprise that Google is turning to renewables as a sustainable and affordable way of powering its data centers because its operations rely on vast amounts of electricity.

“Approximately 72 percent of our data center electricity use in Alabama and Tennessee will be matched on an hourly basis with carbon-free sources-compared to a status-quo regional grid mix that is 48 percent carbon-free,” the company said.

Some timelines:

In 2015 alone, Google consumed 5.7 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity across all of its operations, about the same as San Francisco used in the same year.

In 2016, Google said it planned to source carbon-free electricity on a 24/7 basis for each data center.

In 2017, the search giant tried to reach 100 percent renewable energy purchasing goal.

So far, it has sourced carbon-free energy for its data centers in Finland, Netherlands, Taiwan, North Carolina, and Iowa.