Google and Microsoft have invested in major renewable energy contracts to power their data centers.
According to Register (opens in a new tab)Google signed a 12-year, 100 MW corporate power purchase agreement with Scottish offshore wind development called “Moray West”, in the relatively remote Moray Firth region of Scotland.
The joint venture is owned by EDP Renewables and French firm Engie, and will see the search giant source 5 TWh of green energy from the 882 MW offshore wind farm, starting in 2025, to be used to power its Google Cloud region. UK.
What about Microsoft?
Microsoft has also signed its own power purchase agreement (PPA) in Ireland covering more than 900MW of new renewable electricity, making the announcement on its European cloud features blog. (opens in a new tab).
Some fonts have indicated (opens in a new tab) this will include a deal with Norwegian company Statkraft and Irish company Energia Group, Power Capital Renewable Energy, which will see the tech giant get more than 366 MW of clean energy in the new deal.
Why are they investing?
Both companies have lofty sustainability targets on the horizon. The type of hyperscale data centers that the two companies dominate, along with Amazon Web Services (AWS), have a colossal environmental footprint.
According to independent research by the IEA, data centers consume around 1% of all electricity consumed globally.
By 2025, Microsoft aims to switch to a 100% renewable energy supply, and by 2030, Microsoft aims to match 100% of its electricity use with zero-carbon energy purchases.
Matt Brittin, president of Google EMEA, said his company is aiming for “a goal of running completely on carbon-free power by 2030” and that “in the UK, we will be running on 90 per cent or close to carbon-free power. in 2025.”
Google said the latest deal will mean the UK cloud region will join six other regions, including Finland, Iowa, Montreal, Spain and Toronto, which will operate on or close to 90 percent carbon-free power from of 2025.
