Facebook this week announced plans to open a new wind-powered data center in Fort Worth, Texas.
"Fort Worth will be powered by 100 percent renewable energy," Facebook's VP of Infrastructure, Tom Furlong, said in a statement. Construction on the new data center has already begun, and Facebook expects the facility to be online by late 2016.
Alongside this new data center, Facebook is setting a goal of powering its operations with 50 percent renewable energy by the end of 2018. That's up from a 2012 goal to reach 25 percent renewables by the end of this year.
"Over the long term, we plan to get to 100 percent," according to Facebook's VP of Engineering, Jay Parikh.
The new Fort Worth facility will be Facebook's fifth data center, joining the others in Altoona, Iowa; Prineville, Oregon; Forest City, Calif.; and Lulea, Sweden as "one of the cornerstones of the global infrastructure that brings Facebook apps and services to you every day," Furlong said. Facebook's Altoona and Lulea data centers are also run entirely on renewable energy.
The new Fort Worth facility will get its power from wind. Facebook worked with Citi Energy, Alterra Power Corporation, and Starwood Energy Group to bring 200 MW of new wind energy to the Texas grid as part of this deal.
"Thanks to our continued focus on efficiency and our investments in renewables in recent years, the carbon impact of one person's use of Facebook for an entire year is the same as the carbon impact of a medium latte," Furlong said.
Greenpeace Senior Climate and Energy Campaigner David Pomerantz praised Facebook for its growing commitment to renewable energy.
"Facebook's new goal of using 50 percent renewable energy and commitment to powering its Texas data center with clean wind power demonstrates the kind of transparency needed to show that it is making steady progress toward its goal of using 100 percent renewable energy," Pomerantz said.
He added that Facebook's announcement "draws a sharp contrast to Amazon Web Services, which has failed to explain how it will power its newly announced data centers in Ohio and India, despite the company's commitment to use 100 percent renewable energy."