Google has struck a deal to purchase a major solar project's entire electrical output to offset its fossil fuel emissions, the Financial Times reports. The search giant will take 100 percent of the initial output from Steel River Energy Center in Arkansas once it comes online in 2029, amounting to 1.6GW of solar power and 2GW of battery storage—enough to power 315,000 homes.

Google will pay a fixed cost for the electricity from the solar plant, but won’t use it directly. Instead, it will draw from the grid powered by a mix of coal, nuclear, renewables and natural gas, along with its own on‑site power (typically gas turbines and engines). Energy from the Steel River Energy Center solar project will form part of that grid mix.

Once completed, the project will supply 2.45GW of solar power and 2.9GWh of battery energy storage. The first two phases (out of three) received $3.5 billion in financing and prioritised US‑manufactured steel and solar panels. Google’s electricity use rose 37 percent last year, pushing up its grid‑based emissions by the same amount.

Other tech giants like Meta and Amazon also saw massive leaps in energy consumption due to data centers powering AI. Meta recently purchased the entire electricity output (200MW) of another solar plant in Texas, while Amazon agreed to buy out the troubled 1.2GW Sunstone solar and battery project in Oregon. The practice of buying clean‑energy output to offset fossil‑fuel use is controversial, with some experts saying it isn’t effective.