|
Listen to this story:
|
Google Cloud and Polsat Plus Group (GPP) have announced strategic partnership where Google will sign its first, in Poland, agreement for the purchase of clean and green electricity. Thanks to implementing the Google Cloud solutions, Polsat Plus Group will in turn accelerate its technological development and digital transformation.
As part of the strategic cooperation with Polsat Plus Group, Google will sign the first agreement for purchase of clean and green electricity to be used by Google Cloud. The green energy will be produced by Polsat Plus Group’s and ZE PAK’s wind farm in Przyrów.
Polsat Plus Group will in turn gain strong functional support of Google Cloud for the needs of long-term support of its business and innovation.
For Polsat Plus Group the partnership with Google is one of the practical elements of implementation of its sustainable development strategy and it offers support for the digital transformation towards increased use of cloud solutions in the day-to-day business operations of the companies which form the Group.
Clean Energy and green electricity for Google Cloud
The agreement between Google and Polsat Plus Group, concerning purchase of clean and green energy, is Google Cloud’s first contract for the supply of renewable energy in Poland. The electrical power will come from Przyrów Wind Farm which Polsat Plus Group and ZE PAK power company plan to launch in Q4 2024. The target power of this wind power plant, consisting of 14 wind turbines, is 50.4 MW, which will enable production of around 105 GWh of power annually. Przyrów wind power plant will increase the share of clean and renewable energy in Poland’s energy mix while also contributing to de-carbonization of both, Polish power engineering industry and Google Cloud’s operations.
Clean energy is a new, third business segment of Polsat Plus Group’s Strategy 2023+, pursued in cooperation with ZE PAK power engineering company, that the Group has been developing since 2021 in addition to the two existing pillars, namely media/content and telecommunications. As part of the strategy the Group has been investing in new, renewable sources of clean energy. At present the installed clean energy power is around 330 MW and it is expected to reach 740 MW in 2025, including onshore wind farm projects generating nearly 300 MW of power in total. Other projects include solar (photovoltaic) farms with total target power of 340 MW. In Strategy 2023+, the target installed green power is 1000 MW. It is estimated that these efforts will help reduce CO2 emissions in Polish economy by more than 2 million tons annually. Polsat Plus Group’s efforts related to the development of hydrogen economy in Poland also form an important part of the clean energy sector.
Related Article: Google Launches AI-based Solution to Tackle Road Traffic Emissions
Cloud solutions for Polsat Plus Group
In order to support its development and to adjust to the evolving customer needs, Polsat Plus Group will be migrating part of its IT infrastructure to clean-energy-powered cloud solutions provided by Google. Cloud solutions enhance flexibility in terms of selection of IT services and tools, offer faster and more efficient adaptation of products and services to customer needs as well as easier access and analysis of the data coming from various sources, while reducing the cost of maintenance of own infrastructure and, thanks to the use of off-the-shelf components, offering shorter lead times for delivery of new applications as well as cost reduction which is owed to increased adoption of cloud-based approach, reduction of number of systems and lower energy consumption.
As part of the strategic partnership, the IT staff of Polsat Plus Group companies (i.a. Polkomtel, Netia, Oktawave) will gain strong training support from Google in the field of Google’s latest cloud solutions, with particular stress on machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) skills. This will help the company fully exploit the computational power of the cloud to the benefit of the new solutions which will be implemented for the Group’s customers.
“I am delighted that Polsat Plus Group and Google Cloud have been brought together in this strategic partnership which will be implemented in both, the area of state-of-the-art technologies as well as the area of energy transformation. It is great news for the future and for the development of our Group whose three main pillars of operations include media, telecommunications and production of clean power” says Zygmunt Solorz, founder and main shareholder of Polsat Plus Group.
“I am proud that together with Google Cloud we have been able to develop an agreement which is unique, both in Poland and in the region. We will be supplying clean and green energy to Google Cloud from one of our wind farms, while thanks to the cloud solutions which, what should be stressed here, also save energy, we will continue developing even faster in the technology sphere. The investments in the development of clean, renewable sources of energy are the practical implementation of our ESG strategy,” says Piotr Żak, Vice-Chairman of the Supervisory Board, Polsat Plus Group “Mainly via Netia and Oktawave, who specialize in offering cloud solutions, we would also like to offer Google Cloud-based solutions, especially to our Group’s business clients” adds Piotr Żak.
“We are very pleased to partner with Polsat Plus Group to support their digital transformation goals and more broadly Poland’s transition towards locally-produced, carbon-free electricity,” said Tara Brady, President, Google Cloud EMEA. “This renewable energy, green electricity coupled with our carbon-intelligent computing platform helps us to run meaningfully cleaner cloud regions and offices.”