If you are like me, I find a claim of “carbon negative” from an Internet services company to be rather incredible! If I were you, I would want proof and explanation, too. So, here it is!
From 2006…
In our early years, finding servers directly running on clean energy was almost impossible, so we purchased Renewable Energy Credits. From the very beginning, all work has been done at locations powered by clean energy, and the standard impact of a building (with lights and environmental controls, consuming power 24/7), as well as people commuting to it, were negated. So, the servers were all we had left to worry about.
…and more recently…
As time went on, we discovered our favorite upstream provider, where our hosting servers have lived for over ten years. Our servers are now powered directly by renewable energy! At this point, we figured we could claim carbon neutrality, without people commenting that the credit system, like “carbon trading,” not actually conveying true carbon neutrality on it’s own. By this time, we had already arranged things so that all energy from the power network was renewable, from the source to our offices. Carbon-neutral became an easy claim to make, and without caveats.
…to today’s reality!
Now, the main business office is located in a home, and we made sure that this home is covered by what the installers said was “clearly too many solar panels.” As far as power not locally generated, it still comes directly from renewable sources.
The result?
This is a screenshot from the official site of the power provider. To save you some work.. in 2024:
kWh injected into the net: 3097.006
kWh pulled from the net: 2591.936
Injected power we’re not paid back for: 505 kWh!
Once again, This is a screenshot from the official site of the power provider. To save you some work.. in 2023:
kWh injected into the net: 1728.186
kWh pulled from the net: 1265.186
Injected power we’re not paid for: 462 kWh!
Still, the numbers alone don’t build the image without a context. To illustrate the situation indicated by 2023 and 2024: Each year, the renewable energy that we inject into the power network is the equivalent of two to three months worth of the power drawn by an average consumer. Not bad, right!?
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