As cost-effective carbon-free energy (CFE) technology rapidly evolves, it places hopes of decarbonized electricity grids within reach. But the right public policies are needed to accelerate this transition and ensure its certainty, according to Google.

The cloud giant plans to power its data centers and offices with continuous carbon-free electricity by 2030, meaning it will match each hour of its electricity consumption with CFE on every grid where the provider operates.

In the traditional renewable energy approach, a company makes up for its non-renewable energy usage by supplying renewable energy to power grids anywhere in the world. But this means that the energy it directly uses is still likely from traditional carbon-intensive power grids based on fossil fuels.

Google’s commitment, however, is to eliminate non-renewable energy sources for its own operations and fund green energy elsewhere.

The cloud giant posits CFE as crucial to itself and to the global economy, and it encourages companies to go beyond simply buying clean energy in the form of power purchase agreements, for example.

"To achieve 24/7 CFE, both for our own operations and for economies more broadly, we must do more than just purchase clean energy — we must work to transform electricity systems," Caroline Golin and Nick Pearson, who lead Google's energy market development and policy, explained in a blog post.

To that end, Google released its clean energy policy roadmap that outlines recommendations for electricity grids to decarbonize, which the provider claims will help it meet its own target and enable others to reach similar CFE goals. Google touted its more than a decade of experience as a large consumer of electricity and major clean energy buyer as its ethos in this area.

Google's CFE policy roadmap is based on three core goals: advance technology, expand and reform markets, and empower consumers. The provider calls for policymakers to prioritize these same goals "to accelerate the transition to a reliable, cost-effective, inclusive, and carbon-free electricity system."

The roadmap recommends policies that support the development, commercialization, and deployment of CFE tech, along with a policy that maintains today's carbon-free resources and accelerates replacing carbon-emitting ones.

This means introducing CFE-related clean energy standards and investment incentives. Google also addresses the CFE barriers within electricity transmission infrastructure. The provider’s roadmap suggests policy to eliminate those barriers and “cost-effectively deliver clean power from where it’s generated to where it’s needed.”

Regional and competitive wholesale electricity markets are a key piece of clean energy adoption and lowering costs for electricity users. Policy can help accelerate this transition by creating and expanding those regional and competitive wholesale electricity markets where they don't already exist, Google explained.

The roadmap also suggests reforming markets so they value the contribution of all CFE sources, and recommends moving toward grid models that are more integrated and flexible across supply and demand.

Google says that policy reform is necessary to "unleash the power of customer demand" that will push the energy transition along.

The roadmap recommends creating legal and cost-effective roads to clean energy for all consumers. This includes giving consumers access to quality, granular, transparent energy data and implementing regulatory structures that incentivize consumers to transition to clean energy.

Google suggest policymakers support tools like time-based energy attribute certificates as a way for customers to "increase their decarbonization impact."

The provider explains that these three goals and policy areas reinforce one another in an interconnected way.

Rapidly and cost-effectively deploying commercialized clean energy tech will continue to accelerate in larger electricity markets. And those expanded markets will allow for greater levels of decarbonization if paired with policies that lower the cost of clean energy tech and help build infrastructure that leads to deeper renewable integration.

Finally, empowering customers will encourage continued development of new technologies, increase market efficiency, make clean energy more affordable, and garner public support for decarbonization policies, according to Google's roadmap.

"As we advance toward our goal of 24/7 CFE by 2030, we commit to working with others and advocating for clean energy policies that enable 24/7 CFE for all energy consumers and decarbonize electricity grids at the scale and pace required to meet the urgency of the world’s climate challenge," Golin and Pearson concluded.