Facebook to clean up its act with renewable power pledge

FACEBOOK has promised to use only wind and solar energy to power its global tech operations in a drive to cut its emissions by the end of the decade.

The world’s largest social media group said it plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions from its energy-intensive data centres by using only renewable power by the end of 2020.

The tech titan raised its clean-energy ambition after beating its target to support 50pc of its facilities with renewable energy by 2018 a year early.

By cleaning up its energy use, Facebook hopes to slash its greenhouse gas emissions by three quarters.

Technology giants are increasingly taking up the global fight against climate change to combat the growing carbon footprint of their data centres.

Last year 62pc of Facebook’s total greenhouse gas emissions were due to data centres, most of which are found on the west coast of the US in Oregon.

Facebook’s clean-power pledge follows similar promises from rivals including Google, which became one of Silicon Valley’s earliest renewable energy adopters after pledging to source its own clean power in 2012.

The search giant announced last year that it had achieved its goal of using 100pc renewable energy by becoming one the world’s largest corporate buyers of wind and solar power, securing wind and solar power projects totalling 2.6GW.

Facebook said it has signed contracts for more than 3GW of new solar and wind energy.

In Europe, these so-called “power purchase agreements” have been slower to emerge. Renewable energy developers expect major technology companies may begin funding their projects before the end of the decade.