Microsoft signs power purchase deals to support Ireland’s renewable energy infrastructure

Microsoft has signed a series of renewable energy agreements that will add more than 900MW of wind and solar energy to Ireland’s energy grid.

The multiyear contracts with Statkraft, Energia Group and Power Capital Renewable Energy will see Microsoft contribute close to 30 per cent of Ireland’s corporate power purchase agreement (CPPA) target by 2030. Under the Government’s Climate Action Plan, 15 per cent of electricity demand is to be delivered from renewable energy CPPAs by 2030.

“With these agreements, we support new renewable energy infrastructure in Ireland,” said Noelle Walsh, corporate vice-president of cloud operations and innovation at Microsoft.

“This announcement builds on our efforts to make our data centres more sustainable and foster new innovations to support the growth of renewables on the energy grid here in Ireland. As we continue to support the growing demand for cloud across public and private sectors, Microsoft is committed to partnering with all stakeholders to help Ireland on its grid decarbonisation journey while unlocking the opportunities of a digital economy and society.”

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The new agreements were announced by Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Leo Varadkar.

Microsoft has committed to becoming carbon negative by 2030, and said its data centres in Ireland will be supported by 100 per cent renewable energy by 2025.

The announcement is one of a series of measures Microsoft has taken in a bid to become more sustainable. In July it said it planned to use its uninterruptible power supply batteries within its data centres in Dublin to provide back-up power to Eirgrid, allowing the operator to reduce its reliance on fossil fuels. The project will allow power grid operators to use the data centre batteries to maintain excess capacity, facilitating a quick response from the grid, instead of using coal- and natural gas-fired power plants, known as the spinning reserve.