Google and Microsoft have both invested in large renewable energy contracts to power their data centers.
Based on Register (opens in a new tab)Google has signed a 12-year 100MW corporate power purchase agreement with Scottish offshore wind developer “Moray West”, in Scotland’s relatively remote Moray Firth region.
The joint venture is owned by EDP Renewables and French company Engie, and the search giant will receive 5 TWh of green energy from its 882 MW offshore wind farm, which, starting in 2025, will be used to supply electricity. power their Google Cloud UK region.
What about Microsoft?
Microsoft has also signed its own Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) in Ireland covering more than 900MW of new renewable electricity, made the announcement on Europe Cloud Feature Blog (opens in a new tab).
Some sources have shown (opens in a new tab) this will include a deal with Norwegian firm Statkraft and Irish firm Energia Group, Power Capital Renewable Energy, which will see the tech giant acquire more than 366MW of clean energy in the new deal.
Why do they invest?
Both companies have lofty sustainability goals to meet in the future. The type of hyperscale data center that the two companies dominate, along with Amazon Web Services (AWS), has a huge environmental impact.
According to independent research from the IEA, data centers consume about 1% of total global electricity consumption.
By 2025, Microsoft aims to move to 100% renewable energy, and by 2030, Microsoft aims to have 100% of its electricity consumption in line with zero-carbon energy purchases.
Matt Brittin, president of Google EMEA, said his company aims to “go all carbon-free by 2030” and that “in the UK we’ll be using close to 90% carbon-free energy by 2025”.
Google says the latest deal means the UK cloud region will, along with six others – including Finland, Iowa, Montreal, Spain and Toronto – be operating at or near 90%. carbon-free energy from 2025 onwards.
