Google invested nearly a billion dollars in its Internet infrastructure in the last quarter of 2011, recording capital expenditures (CapEx) of $951 million. Google’s CapEx spending was about $271 million more than in the third quarter of 2011, when it invested $680 million in its infrastructure.

The increase is likely due to early work on a significant expansion of Google’s international data center network. In recent weeks the company has announced four new data center projects, including three new facilities in three markets in Asia (Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong) and a new data center in Dublin.

Here’s a look at Google’s quarter-by-quarter spending on capital expenditures.

A capital expenditure is an investment in a long-term asset, typically physical assets such as buildings or machinery. Google says the majority of its capital investments are for IT infrastructure, including data enters, servers, and networking equipment. In the past the company’s CapEx spending has closely tracked its data center construction projects, each of which requires between $200 million and $600 million in investment.

A look inside the cooling plant at a Google data center. Google said today that all its company-built data centers have earned independent certifications for environmental impact and workplace safety.

Google said today that all its company-built data centers in the United States have earned independent certifications for environmental impact and workplace safety. The company said the certifications were a sign of its commitment to maintaining the highest standards for its data center operations.

“All of our U.S. owned and operated data centers have received ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001certification,” said Joe Kava, Google’s Senior Director of Data Center Construction and operations, in a post on the Google blog. “We’re the first major Internet services company to gain external certification for those high standards at all of our U.S. data centers.”

While acronym-laden certifications might not seem like exciting stuff, Google says that meeting these standards are a key component of corporate responsibility and being a good citizen in the communities where its data centers are located. “We do this because we want to be the gold standard in environmental and workforce safety, and because we care about the communities where we live and work,” said Kava. “This is one more reason you can feel confident that when you’re using our products, you’re making an environmentally responsible choice.”

Google has been an industry leader in releasing information about the energy efficiency and power usage of its data centers, as well as emphasizing strategies to recycle water to reduce the impact of its facilities on local communities.

ISO 14001 evaluates a facility’s environmental management systems against a standard set of requirements, while OHSAS 18001is an international standard for Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems.

Google said both certifications had been earned by its data center facilities in The Dalles, Oregon; Council Bluffs, Iowa; Mayes County, Oklahoma; Lenoir, North Carolina; Monck’s Corner, South Carolina; and Douglas County, Georgia. “We plan to pursue certification in our European data centers as well,” said Kava.

This video provides an overview of the certifications and some details on the data center systems and best practices involved in meeting the standards.

In late September of this year Google announced a major expansion of its infrastructure in Asia with an investment of $100 million to build new data centers in Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong. The announcement for the Hong Kong data center came as Google held a groundbreaking ceremony for the 2.7 hectare site of the planned facility. The $300 million investment encompasses land, construction and technical equipment. It will be located in the Tseung Kwan O Industrial Estate in Kowloon. Google expects to hire 25 full-time staff.

Despite the political challenges in Southeast Asia, Google says it is seeing significant growth and locating these data centers in Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong is an important next stage for the company’s investment in the region.

“We’re working as quickly as we can to get this facility operational so we can keep up with rapid growth in capacity demand across the region,” said Simon Chang, head of Google’s hardware operations in Asia. “Currently, we are targeting early 2013 to start bringing the facility online.”

Google has been developing plans and scouting locaitons for building data centers in Asia for some time now, as it has been talking with various government officials and buying undersea cable infrastructure.

The expansion is consistent with Google’s approach to building multi-facility data center campuses in areas with abundant power and climates that support using outside air for cooling servers. Google has pursued phased build-outs of data center capacity at its sites in North Carolina, South Carolina and Iowa, as well as Oregon.

The company’s initial site plans for The Dalles called for as many as three data center buildings. The property currently has two completed data centers.

The Google campus at The Dalles was the first project in the company’s initiative to build its own energy-efficient infrastructure, and is one of the data center industry’s most photographed facilities. Pictures of the data center buildings at The Dalles have appeared on the front page of The New York Times, Information Week and in many photos on Flickr. A copy of Google’s site plan was published by Harpers.

But don’t expect to see similar images on Google Maps. Although the Google buildings in The Dalles are clearly visible on rival mapping sites from Microsoft and Yahoo, they are nowhere to be found on Google Maps, which appears to be using imagery of The Dalles from before the data centers were built in 2006.

Google spent $680 million on its data center infrastructure in the third quarter of 2011, a decline from recent quarters. The slight decrease in infrastructure investment is likely tied to the completion of two of the company’s data center projects. Google has just completed the first phase of its data center in Pryor, Oklahoma and also brought online its new facility in Hamina, Finland.

A capital expenditure is an investment in a long-term asset, typically physical assets such as buildings or machinery. Google says the majority of its capital investments are for IT infrastructure, including data enters, servers, and networking equipment. In the past the company’s CapEx spending has closely tracked its data center construction projects, each of which requires between $200 million and $600 million in investment.

While Google’s CapEx spending declined slightly in the third quarter, it will likely trend higher again in the near future. In recent weeks the company has announced four new data center projects, including three new facilities in three markets in Asia (Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong) and a new data center in Dublin.

A Google admin works on a server inside a container in one of Google's early data centers. The company said Friday that it will build a $101 million data center in Dublin. (Source: Google).

Google will build a major new data center in Dublin, Ireland, the latest signal that the search giant is scaling up its infrastructure to deal with the next round of Internet growth. The company said today that it has acquired 11 acres of land and an existing building on Dublin’s Profile Park and will soon begin construction work on a highly energy-efficient data center.

Google says its expects to invest 75 million Euros (about $101 million) to complete the new facility, which expands upon its existing data center space in Dublin, which is leased from a third party. On Tuesday Google announced plans to expand its infrastructure in the build three new data centers in Asia, located in Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan. On Thursday the company commenced operations at its newly-completed data center in Pryor, Oklahoma and announced plans to build a second facility at the site.

Google’s announcements follow a similar series of expansions by Microsoft, which recently unveiled plans to expand its data center footprint in Virginia, Dublin and  Iowa.

Dublin Emerging as Major Cloud Hub
The new Google project further boosts Dublin’s status as one of the world’s major hubs for cloud computing infrastructure. Microsoft and Amazon already operate major cloud data centers in Dublin, and both are expanding their operations there. Dublin’s temperature is ideal for data center cooling, allowing companies to use fresh air to cool servers instead of using huge, power-hungry chillers to refrigerate cooling water.

Google operates some of the world’s most efficient data centers, and has been a pioneer in building chiller-less data centers and facilities that take advantage of local climate. The company’s new server farm in Hamina, Finland uses cold water from the Baltic Sea instead of using chillers.

Once operational, the Google data center will employ up to 30 people in a variety of full-time and contractor roles, including computer technicians, electrical and mechanical engineers, and catering and security staff. The construction project will employ about 200 workers, and the contractors have already been selected after taking part in a competitive bid process. Google already employs over 2,000 people in Dublin, and last year also bought three major office buildings in central Dublin, including Dublin’s tallest commercial office building, Montevetro.

Cloud As A Growth Opportunity
“The global cloud computing industry offers Ireland a massive opportunity for jobs and economic growth,” said Richard Bruton, Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation. “The decision by Google, one of the most important multinational companies in Ireland, to locate a state-of-the-art data centre in Dublin is an endorsement of our policies in this area, and a sign of what is possible if we continue our focus.”

“We’re very happy to continue investing in Ireland and to build out our presence here even further,” said John Herlihy, head of Google Ireland. “The new data centre will be one of the most energy-efficient in Google’s global fleet. This investment further strengthens our presence here, and I’d like to thank IDA Ireland for the assistance they gave us in selecting this site.”

The opening of the new facility, located about 35 miles west of Tulsa, follows the resumption of construction last year. The Oklahoma project was announced in 2007, but put on hold following the economic crisis in 2008.

Google’s Oklahoma Data Center represents a $600 million investment, and employs more than 100 people at a property inside the 9,000-acre MidAmerica Industrial Park in Pryor. Google said it is continuing its investment in Mayes County with the addition of a second building.

“The building will house amenities for the site, including a gym, laundry facilities, cafeteria and office space, as well as increased production capacity,” said Mike Wooten, Operations Manager. “The team has grown quickly, and as we continue to power up the site we expect additional jobs to be added.”

Sanders Mitchell, administrator of the MidAmerica Industrial Park, reflected on the four-year process leading up to today’s announcement.

“Personally, this moment will be remembered with special significance,” said Mitchell. “The Google Data Center in Pryor was announced in May 2007. Back then, the selection of MidAmerica validated everything we put on the table in trying to bring a new company here to our front doorstep. Organizations ranging from our board and staff to the Governor’s office, the Grand River Dam Authority and all our friends at the Oklahoma Department of Commerce have all played vital roles in this historic event.”

Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin was among the 700 guests at a ceremony to celebrate the opening. “We welcome Google and this significant facility to Oklahoma,” said Fallin. “As Oklahomans know, job creation is my top priority as governor. We welcome the more than 100 good-paying jobs Google has brought to our state. Google’s presence in Oklahoma affirms our state is indeed an ideal location for high-tech facilities because of our superb training programs, skilled and dependable workforce, low energy costs and job-creating incentives.”

“Google and Oklahoma are an ideal fit,” said Joe Kava, Google Senior Director, Data Center Construction and Operations. “When we search for a data center site we have very specific criteria such as the caliber of the work force, the right business climate and the infrastructure to support the power and technical needs of our operations. Mayes County and MidAmerica Industrial Park fit the bill and have surpassed our expectations.”

Google’s Oklahoma data center is powered by electricity from Grand River Dam Authority. In an effort to make more renewable energy available to the regional grid, Google has also entered into a long-term agreement to purchase all of the energy from NextEra Energy Resources’ Minco II wind facility.

“We are proud to officially celebrate the completion of this world-class facility,” said Dave Lopez, Oklahoma secretary of commerce. “This project’s success is the result of tremendous work by the MidAmerica Industrial Park staff and a dedicated support team of state and local official agencies, organizations and suppliers.”

Google has already funded a robotics lab for Pryor Public Schools and science and math equipment for the Chouteau-Mazie School District. “We are currently considering several additional grant opportunities focused on science, technology, engineering and math education,” said Wooten.

“They searched, they found, they arrived, and, now, four years later, they are operational,” Mitchell said. “What a great day for our city and our state. I think that we are all ready to go Google, Oklahoma style.”

A look at the inside of a Google data center in South Carolina, showing storage container modules. Google said today that it will build three new data centers in Asia.

“More people are coming online every day in Asia than in any other part of the world, so locating data centers here is an important next stage of Google’s investment in the region,” Google said in a statement.

Google has purchased land in each location, acquiring 15 hectares (37 acres) in Changhua County in Taiwan, 2.7 hectares in the Kowloon region of Hong Kong, and 2.45 hectares of land in the Jurong West section of Singapore. The data centers will be operational in one to two years, Google said, and will each employ between 5 and 20 employees.

Google has long looked to Asia as perhaps the most important growth market for the Internet. “The Asian population will the dominant user population of the Internet,” said Google Internet evangelist Vint Cerf, who wrote the software that connected the first servers on the Internet, in a 2009 video. “There’s no doubt about that at all.”

Google has announced investments of more than $700 million in undersea cable infrastructure to provide it with faster connectivity between North America and the Asia-Pacific region. In 2008 Google said it would partner with Bharti Airtel, Global Transit, KDDI Corp., Pancet and SingTel on the $300 million Unity Trans-Pacific Cable. In 2009 it announced plans to team with KDDI, Bharti Airtel, Reliance to build a $400 million submarine cable dubbed Southeast Asia Japan Cable (SJC).

The company has been scouting multiple data center locations in Asia since late 2007. The company is said to have looked at potential sites in Taiwan, Malaysia, Japan, South Korea, India and even Vietnam.

Google’s site location decisions reflect the prevailing trends in the market, as U.S. data center and cloud computing providers have typically avoided placing data centers in mainland China due to the country’s policies regarding content filtering. Over the past year, major providers have accelerated their expansions in the region. Earlier this year Digital Realty Trust built its first major data center in Singapore, not far from the location of the new Google facility, and has since announced expansions in Sydney and Melbourne. Meanwhile, colocation market leader Equinix has expanded in Tokyo, Singapore and Sydney. Yahoo is also building a major data center in Singapore.

Google said its new facilities “will be among the most efficient and environmentally friendly in Asia, subject to the same high technical and environmental standards we use worldwide,” said Google.

Google didn’t provide details on its efficiency strategies for the region. Data center efficiency can be a challenge in some Asian markets, including Singapore, due to the higher ranges of heat and humidity common to the region, which are not ideal for approaches that rely on the use of outside air (free cooling) to cool servers.

For more on energy efficiency, see our Green Data Centers Channel. For additional video, check out our Data Center Videos channel on YouTube.

Google’s disclosure also reflects a larger challenge – how to translate its huge energy use into terms that reflect the company’s efforts to be efficient and sustainable. Towards that end, Google has released a web site that compares the energy used by Google’s services to other everyday tasks.

Equivalent to a Light Bulb

“We’ve worked hard to reduce the amount of energy our services use,” said Urs Hoelzle, Senior Vice President of Technical Infrastructure at Google, in a post on the Google blog. “In fact, to provide you with Google products for a month – not just search, but Google+, Gmail, YouTube and everything else we have to offer – our servers use less energy per user than a light left on for three hours. And, because we’ve been a carbon-neutral company since 2007, even that small amount of energy is offset completely, so the carbon footprint of your life on Google is zero.”

Google’s energy disclosures represent one of the most visible efforts yet to tell the data center industry’s efficiency story. The rise of the Internet economy is rapidly shifting business activity from stores and highways into data centers. As these facilities become a focal point for the economy, they also consume larger amounts of electricity. While Internet delivery makes many industries more efficient, data center operators have often struggled to put their soaring power usage in context.

While the new report discusses carbon offsets and renewable energy, Google’s data centers are the key to managing the company’s environmental impact. “Without efficiency measures in our data centers, our footprint would have been about twice as big,” the company said today on a new web site detailing its energy use.

Energy Efficiency an ‘Obsession’ for Google

“For the last decade, energy use has been an obsession,” said Hoelzle. “We’ve designed and built some of the most efficient servers and data centers in the world, using half the electricity of a typical data center.”

Google confirmed data released last month by data center energy expert Jon Koomey, who has estimated the total global data center energy usage for 2010 at 198.8 billion kWh. “From our own accounting, we know that Google’s data centers use about 1 percent of Koomey’s worldwide data center estimate,” Google states.

Koomey said that Google may be running its entire global data center network in an energy footprint of roughly 220 megawatts of power capacity, and likely has about 900,000 servers in its network.

Google is not disclosing the hard numbers on its data center energy usage, but includes the total in figures for electricity use in all its facilities, including offices. That figure represents 84 percent of the company’s total energy usage. Google also isn’t saying what it spends on carbon offsets.

Openness on Infrastructure Energy Use

Nonetheless, today’s data represents a step towards the recent calls by Greenpeace for improved disclosure of the energy required to run Internet infrastructure. In April the environmental group called on Google and other large IT companies to disclose more information about the energy uses by their data centers, and place greater weight on renewable energy sources in making decisions about where to build new facilities.

Google says renewable energy sources account for 25 percent of the company’s energy use. That’s expected to increase to 35 percent in 2012 due to the contributions of recent agreements to purchase power from wind generation facilities in Iowa and Oklahoma, which offset the impact of Google data centers in those states.

Google says its power usage, while large, is equal to just 0.01 percent of the world’s electricity usage. That estimate is derived from data centers’ use of 1.3 percent of the total, and Google’s 1 percent share of total data center power usage. Here’s a graphic illustration: