Microsoft has agreed to support the development of 10.5 gigawatts of new renewable energy capacity worldwide. This is a massive amount of electricity that will fuel Microsoft's AI ambitions and climate goals.
For comparison, 10.5 GW of renewable energy amounts to nearly half the amount of solar and wind capacity California had in 2022. This is the largest corporate agreement to purchase renewable energy to date.
Microsoft inked the agreement with Brookfield Asset Management, which said the deal is almost eight times bigger than what was previously the single largest corporate power purchase agreement ever signed.
Microsoft is investing heavily in AI offerings for its customers and has invested more than $13 billion in OpenAI. AI is energy-intensive, which risks pushing the company’s greenhouse gas emissions up as its data centers consume more electricity. To mitigate this, Microsoft needs more renewable energy online around the world to keep its carbon footprint from growing.
Brookfield says the deal allows it to invest in new renewable energy projects across the US, Europe, Latin America, Asia, and the Pacific. Microsoft would purchase power generated in each new location.
Microsoft has previously committed to matching 100 percent of its electricity use with carbon-free energy purchases by 2030. It can’t do that without more wind and solar farms connected to the grid, which it’s helping to do with this deal.
To be carbon negative by the same date, it’ll need to capture any remaining emissions it hasn’t been able to