Big Tech emerges as some of offshore wind’s biggest fans

Google has signed a 15-year agreement with EnBW to buy 100MW of electricity from the He Dreiht offshore wind farm in its bid to ‘clean up’ its energy use.

“Meeting the demand for AI infrastructure requires direct investment in the energy systems that make this technology possible,” said Adam Elman, director of Sustainability EMEA at Google. “By contracting for new wind power from EnBW, we are bringing more clean energy online in Germany to power our operations, while accelerating the broader transition to a more sustainable electricity grid.”

Iberdrola, one of the world’s largest clean-energy companies, has also confirmed an agreement with Amazon to buy 159MW from the East Anglia Three offshore wind farm in the UK.

The project, a 1.4 GW development 69km off the Suffolk coast, is expected to generate about 700GWh of electricity a year.

And this is just one: Amazon has also signed PPAs with Iberdrola for projects in Germany, the US, and elsewhere in the UK, says Iberdrola. Two of its German offshore wind farms – Baltic Eagle and Windanker – will potentially provide Amazon with around 1.1TWh of electricity a year.

Win-win

Such agreements show how huge technology firms are becoming “anchor customers” for offshore wind.

By locking in long-term demand from energy-intensive cloud and data-centre operations, corporate PPAs provide developers with revenue certainty while enabling tech companies to secure large volumes of carbon-free electricity for rapidly expanding digital infrastructure.

Utilities and developers say these corporate contracts provide the predictable revenue needed to support multi-billion-euro offshore wind investments, especially as government support is waning.

Google has likewise expanded its offshore wind procurement strategy through direct PPAs with project developers and utilities. Two years ago, the company signed agreements with Shell and Eneco covering 478MW of capacity from the Hollandse Kust Noord and Hollandse Kust West VI offshore wind farms in the Dutch North Sea. Google said the contracts would help its Dutch data centres and offices reach more than 90% carbon-free energy and support its broader goal of operating on 24/7 carbon-free power.

In May 2025, Google bought the full 108MW output of the Shell NoordzeeWind offshore wind farm in the Netherlands, which meant the farm’s lifespan could be extended by at least four years beyond its original decommissioning date, said Google.

Microsoft arguably started the trend a few years ago, buying 100% of the onshore 180MW wind energy generated by the pledging to buy 90MW from the Borssele III/IV offshore wind project, also in the Netherlands, with electricity supplied to its data centres under a 15-year contract.