Microsoft and Google add more renewable energy for datacenters as companies in the UK and Ireland get huge wind power contracts.
Microsoft and Google Add More Renewable Energy for Datacenters
Both Google and Microsoft have invested in sizable renewable energy contracts in a bid to power their data centers.
Google has now signed a 12-year 100MW corporate power purchase agreement according to the register with Scottish offshore wind development known as “Moray West” which is Scotland’s relatively remote Firth region.
The joint venture is however owned by EDP Renewables and French firm Engie, and it will see the search engine company get 5TWh of green power from the 882 MW offshore wind farm, beginning in 2025, and it will be used in powering its Google cloud UK region.
Microsoft likewise also signed its own power purchase agreement (PPAs) in Ireland that reportedly covers over 900MW of new renewable electricity, making the announcement of the company’s European Cloud Features blog.
Many sources have indicated that this will include a deal with Norwegian company Statkraft and the Irish company Energia Group, Power Capital Renewable Energy which will then see the tech company to get more than 366MW of clean energy in the new deal.
The Reasons for the Investment
Both firms have huge sustainability goals to meet up to on the horizon. The type of hyper-scale data centers that the two firms dominate, alongside Amazon Web Services (AWS), has a colossal effect on the environment.
And according to independent research from the IEA, data centers consume around 1% of all electricity consumed worldwide.
Microsoft aims to shift to a 100% supply of renewable energy by 2025, and by 2030 the company aims to have 100% of its electricity consumption matched by zero-carbon energy purchases.
Google’s Assessment of the Deal
President of Google EMEA, Matt Brittin said that his company targets “a goal of operating entirely on carbon-free energy by 2030” and that “in the UK, we’ll be running on at or near 90 percent carbon-free energy in 2025”.
Google has said that the recent agreement will mean that its cloud region in the UK will be joining forces with six other regions including Finland, Iowa, Montreal, Spain, and Toronto that will be operating at or close to 90 percent carbon-free energy from 2025 and onwards.
