Korean Internet Giant Naver Commits to 100% Renewable Energy

Naver, the Korean internet search giant and parent company of social media platform Line, has promised to power its data center in South Korea with 100% renewable energy, following the global trend set by Google, Apple, Facebook and more recently, Equinix.

"As a country enjoying some of the fastest internet speeds in the world and an openness to new technology, the use of renewable energy is only a matter of will. More and more IT brands are committing to 100% renewable energy goals, so for those who want to avoid lagging behind in the global market, renewable energy is not an option but a must," said Gary Cook, senior IT analyst at Greenpeace USA.

Greenpeace East Asia secured the promise from the internet giant following meetings with the company in May, just ahead of launching the Cool IT campaign in South Korea to push for renewable energy sources in the IT sector. Naver is South Korea's number one internet portal with 18 million daily visitors, 1.2 billion page views per day and 7,400 search queries every single second.

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Greenpeace East Asia today also released an evaluation of the electricity performance of seven major Internet service providers in South Korea, including Naver, KT, LG U+, SK C&C and Samsung SDS. According to the report, Naver received an "A" in terms of transparency and renewable energy policy, while DaumKakao, Samsung SDS and LG U+ ranked the lowest.

Of the seven IT companies included in Greenpeace East Asia's report, SK C&C has the largest proportion of renewable energy, despite it constituting only 1% of its total electricity use. This is followed by KT at 0.44% and Naver at 0.006%. Half of the companies refused to provide data.

"We welcome such a progressive decision from Naver as it has the potential to shape an industry which so far has had a limited vision for renewable energy use. We are optimistic that the company will serve as a clean and sustainable model for the so-called 'creative economy' being pursued by the Korean government," said Jude Lee, Climate and Energy Campaigner at Greenpeace East Asia.

Data centers around the world consume nearly 684 billion kWh (as of 2011), which makes the online world the sixth largest power consumer following China, USA, Japan, India and Russia. In South Korea, the annual amount of energy consumed by data centers stood at nearly 2.6 billion kWh in 2013, which is equal to the monthly energy consumption of a staggering 12 million households.

Major internet companies including Apple, Facebook and Google continue to lead efforts to build an internet that is powered with renewable energy, but an uncooperative fossil fuel sector and rapid energy demand growth for the internet places those ambitions under threat.

Greenpeace is calling on all major internet companies to:

• Make a long-term commitment to become 100% renewably powered.
• Commit to transparency on IT performance and consumption of resources, including the sources of electricity, to enable customers, investors, and stakeholders to measure progress toward that goal.
• Develop a strategy for increasing their supply of renewable energy, through a mixture of procurement, investment, and corporate advocacy to both electricity suppliers and government decision-makers.