T-Mobile is cleaning up its act, so to speak, signing an agreement for a second wind farm project and promising to use renewable electricity to meet 100% of its energy needs by 2021.
The move to renewable energy is a natural part of doing the right thing by its customers—and it’s smart business, according to T-Mobile CEO and President John Legere. “We expect to cut T-Mobile’s energy costs by around $100 million in the next 15 years thanks to this move,” he said in a press release.
T-Mobile now will have two wind projects set to meet an estimated 60% of its total energy needs nationwide. The operator has finalized a contract for 160 MWs from Infinity Renewables’ Solomon Forks Wind Project in Kansas, with power generation set to begin in early 2019. The Solomon Forks project marks T-Mobile’s second major wind power project; the other major source of wind power is the Red Forks project in Oklahoma, which went online in December.
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T-Mobile appears to be the first U.S. carrier to become a member of RE100, joining the likes of Nike, Google, Microsoft and Facebook, as well as Telefonica and VMware. RE100 works with businesses around the world to switch private sector electricity demand to renewables and accelerate the transition to a low carbon economy. T-Mobile will report electricity data annually to RE100, which will report on the “un-carrier’s” progress.
“It’s great to see T-Mobile US shifting to renewables for its power consumption,” said Sam Kimmins, head of RE100 at The Climate Group, in the release. “As a large electricity consumer in the U.S., they can truly transform energy systems by bringing significant renewable capacity online – all of that while delivering real value to their customers.”