As global demand for energy and cloud services rises, Microsoft is investing in more wind energy than ever before. In a partnership with Vattenfall, Microsoft has agreed to buy all energy produced from a 180-megawatt wind farm that will be located next to one of its datacenters outside Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Following a similar deal made with General Electric in Ireland earlier this month, Microsoft is holding true to its commitment to reduce fossil fuel use. "Microsoft is committed to bringing new renewable energy sources online to power our datacenters. By focusing on local projects, we're able to create new economic opportunities, reduce carbon emissions and make progress on our global commitment to increase the amount of clean energy used to power the Microsoft Cloud," says Brian Janous, Microsoft's general manager of energy.
Vattenfall is one of the largest generators of heat and electricity in Europe and relies heavily on Microsoft's Azure cloud services for data analytics. With the help of Microsoft, Vattenfall believes that it can more efficiently produce energy using Azure and other cloud tools.
Construction of the new expansion at the Wieringermeer wind farm will begin in 2018 and is expected to be fully operational by 2019. Upon completion of the project, the wind farm will open as one of the highest capacity onshore wind farms in the Netherlands. In total, over 100 wind turbines will be built with a target of 1.3 billion kWh of energy.
Microsoft will have access to nearly 800MW of renewable energy upon completion of the project. By the end of 2018, Microsoft is attempting to exceed more than 50 percent renewable energy for its data centers.