Data Center Knowledge: Microsoft Pledges to Emit ‘Zero Carbon’ By 2030
Microsoft has made another big climate pledge. The company said Wednesday that it will work to power all its offices and data centers around the world with carbon-free energy 100 percent of the time by 2030.
“Moving forward we will be innovating our energy purchasing contracting to help bring more zero carbon energy onto the grid and move more high carbon intensity energy off the grid, helping to rebalance the carbon intensity of any grid on which we operate,” Microsoft chief environmental officer Lucas Joppa and corporate VP, cloud and innovations, Noelle Walsh wrote in a blog post. “We will match our purchasing of zero carbon energy with our consumption on an hourly basis. And we will do so on the same grid systems into which we are already connected.”
It’s also developed a data tool for more precise estimation of the carbon reduction each clean-energy project on a grid (be it a wind farm, solar array, or large-scale storage) achieves. Microsoft built the tool together with REsurety and said it will pilot it in Texas.
The ways companies have been measuring the “decarbonization” impact of their clean energy investments to date “have relied on regional averages,” which leaves a lot of room for error, according to REsurety. The new Locational Marginal Emissions tool measures the impact of “each specific clean energy procurement, load-siting, or energy storage decision.”