It seems that GAFA investments in renewable energy will continue to grow in the coming years.
Recently I had the opportunity to look at the ESG reports of GAFA companies (Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon) and found some interesting facts by comparing numbers.
First, I compared the percentage of renewable energy in their electricity consumption. Google and Apple achieved a rate of 100% renewable energy on their electricity consumption in 2019. Facebook and Amazon reached 86% and 42% respectively.
Amazon's share of renewable energy in electricity consumption is significantly lower than other companies. Amazon has set a goal to use "100% renewable energy" by 2025, so major investments in renewable energy are expected in the coming years.
Comparing contracted renewable capacity, it appears that Google maintains its lead, although Facebook added 1.7 GW of contracts in 2019. (Edit: Amazon revised its sustainability report and claims they have 6500MW of solar and wind projects as of Dec 2020.)
Because Apple does not manufacture products in its own facilities, the amount of renewable energy used in Apple's own facilities is relatively small. According to Apple's report, 75% of its carbon footprint comes from product manufacturing. Therefore, Apple introduced the Supplier Clean Energy Program in 2015, and now the renewable energy capacity at Apple suppliers is significant. Apple recently set a more ambitious goal to "transition our entire manufacturing supply chain to 100 percent renewable power by 2030," so renewable energy investment at Apple suppliers is expected to continue growing.
Since 2010, Google has invested "nearly $2.7 billion in large-scale renewable energy projects with an expected total combined capacity of approximately 4.6 GW". (The figure excludes Power Purchase Agreements for their operation.)
I also looked at the time series data of Google's renewable electricity purchased and found that it grew rapidly over the 2013-2018 period.
As Google's electricity consumption is expected to continue to increase in the coming years, Google's investment in renewable energy is also expected to increase.
The installation of EV charging ports at Google also increased at a fast pace.
Google employees can charge electric vehicles for free as part of their benefits, which has helped reduce greenhouse gas emissions from commuting. Google has installed 2,722 EV charging ports at its U.S. offices through 2018, and Apple has installed more than 2,300 EV charging stations through 2019.
Speaking of electric vehicles, Amazon announced that it has ordered 100,000 new electric delivery vehicles from Rivian, a U.S. electric vehicle manufacturer, in September 2019. (Amazon led a $700 million round of investment in Rivian in February 2019.)
Although these companies have different business models, they are aggressively committing to reducing GHG emissions and are very good at disclosing the information in their environmental reports.
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