Google - carbon-neutral since 2007- has just made the largest corporate purchase of renewable energy in history.

A 1.6GWpackage of agreements that includes 18 new energy deals will increase the company’s worldwide portfolio of wind and solar agreements by more than 40 per cent, to 5.5GW.

All of the deals are making long-term purchase commitments that result in the development of new projects. Google claims that the latest agreements will also spur the construction of more than $2bn in new energy infrastructure, such as solar panels and wind turbines across the US, Chile and Europe.

Google has mainly focussed on wind energy but CEO Sundar Pichai notes in a blog that the declining cost of has now made solar increasingly cost-effective. Indeed the investment in Chile will be a hybrid technology deal that combines solar and wind.

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