Apple, Google and Facebook are among the technology companies pushing to power the internet with 100% renewable energy, according to a new report by Greenpeace.
The report says Amazon is falling behind in the effort to reduce a reliance on energy sources like coal in powering data centres and cloud servers used by customers.
The report emphasises the responsibility that lies with technology companies, and points to the statistic that if the internet were a country, it would rank sixth in the world on the electricity demand table.
Gary Cook, a senior IT analyst at Greenpeace, said: “Apple, Facebook and Google are powering our online lives with clean energy, and building a greener offline world for everyone in the process. These companies have proven over the past 24 months that wind and solar energy are ready and waiting to power the internet, and the rest of our economy, with clean electricity.”
Apple is the only company in the list to have achieved a 100% renewable energy goal, using a private solar installation to power the servers for its iCloud service at a data centre in the United States. iCloud is the wireless connection used by customers to connect their different Apple devices together.
“Apple’s rapid shift to renewable energy over the past 24 months has made it clear why it’s one of the world’s most innovative and popular companies,” said Mr Cook. “By continuing to buy dirty energy, Amazon Web Services not only can’t seem to keep up with Apple, but is dragging much of the internet down with it.”
According to Greenpeace, Amazon Web Services currently sources only 15% of its energy from renewable sources, with coal, gas and nuclear relied on to provide the rest of its power. The service currently hosts big name online brands like Spotify, Netflix and Tumblr.
Greenpeace is calling on all major internet companies to make a long-term commitment to become 100% renewable energy powered, as well as develop a strategy for the increased deployment of renewable energy, and be more transparent on their consumption of resources.
In a statement, Apple said: “We believe that actions speak louder than words, especially when it comes to issues as important as climate change, and Apple is proud to lead the industry by powering our data centres with 100% renewable energy for more than a year now.
“We’ve built the country’s largest private solar array and fuel cell installations at our site in North Carolina, and innovative clean energy projects are in the works for our data centres in Nevada and Oregon.”
The report also praised several UK-based companies for their work on renewable energy, with internet hosting company Rackspace noted for running its UK data centre on 100% renewable energy. The report also highlighted that BT had signed a deal to convert all its data centres to 100% renewable sources.
Apple's renewable energy use hailed
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