There is hope in the quest for renewable energy as more and more tech giants are joining the cause. T-Mobile recently joined The Climate Group and the RE100 campaign to pursue a T-Mobile sustainability plan and put it in action. The mobile giant’s plan or commitment is to go 100 percent renewable energy by the year 2021.
T-Mobile Sustainability And Other Tech Giants Leading the Charge
The American Telco has announced its new contract to source 160 megawatts from wind power generation beginning early 2019. It will be acquiring the energy from Infinity Renewables’ Solomon Forks Wind Project in Kansas. Last December, they signed a similar renewable energy contract with Red Forks Wind Power Project in Oklahoma. These two sources combined will generate 320 MW, equivalent to 60 percent of T-Mobile’s power needs.
This move isn’t just about saving the environment, according to T-Mobile CEO John Legere. It’s also a very good business move since the company is projecting to save around $100 million in power consumption in the next 15 years. The savings can then trickle down to their customers in the form of lower fees, additional freebies, or overall better service because of new innovations which could be implemented.
It is fortunate that the leading tech giants are the ones spearheading the way to 100 percent renewable energy. In fact, back in 2016, Google, Apple and Facebook started on a race to meet their 100 percent renewable energy goals. Google bought a lot of renewable energy and is planning to buy even more wind and solar power to meet the demands of all of its 13 data centers worldwide. Apple, on the other hand, announced that they have already reached 93 percent back in 2015.
Renewable Energy to Save the Environment
On the case of the T-Mobile sustainability goal: Some might say that committing for renewable energy is a publicity stunt for the company. Indeed, it is true that an announcement like that will likely put the company in the radar for the coming weeks and months. Nevertheless, it is actually a good thing that tech companies are now racing to use all renewable energy since technology is actually one of the culprits in carbon emissions. Although they may not be the leading sources, technological advances that we take for granted today still leave a carbon footprint that affects the environment negatively. Companies such as Apple and Google are actually trying their best to reduce the carbon footprint of their devices and services.
Another reason why going completely renewable is now viable is the price of renewable energy. In the past, wind and solar energy were too expensive to be sustainable. However, the price of renewable power has dropped significantly in the past 10 years. In fact, wind power is now one of the most cost-efficient power sources to use. Market analysts have even stated that they expect wind and solar energy to be the cheapest sources of power in the world by 2030.
