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In 2016, Google consumed as much energy as the city of San Francisco. In 2017, it said, all of that energy will come from wind farms and solar panels. The online giant said that all of its data centers around the world will be entirely powered with renewable energy sources. This is not to say that Google computers will consume nothing but wind and solar power. Like almost any company, Google gets power from a power company, which operates an energy grid typically supplied by a number of sources, including hydroelectric dams, natural gas, coal and wind power. What Google has done over the last decade, with relatively little fanfare, is participate in a number of large-scale deals with renewable producers, typically guaranteeing to buy the energy they produce with their wind turbines and solar cells. With those guarantees, wind companies can obtain bank financing to build more turbines.