Microsoft has announced a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) in South Korea that will add up to 2.5 gigawatts of solar power to go 100% renewable by 2030.
The company has long been committed to using clean energy, but over the years has changed the way it set out to achieve its goals. While the company originally started out by buying renewable energy certificates to offset its carbon emissions, it has now shifted its focus to PPAs, which it will use to power many of its operations with clean energy.
The registry (opens in new tab) reports that the company has 200 offices and 60 cloud regions, all of which consume an enormous amount of energy.
Solar power from Microsoft
While the plan to install up to 2.5 gigawatts of power may sound like a responsible move to anyone familiar with home energy use, some believe that for something as large as a data center, it’s just a token gesture is, while others think that any progress is good progress.
Data centers have long been scrutinized for the amount of power they use, and while many chipmakers have focused on providing more energy efficient models, our growing web presence has recognized our need Cloud storage increase drastically.
According to The Register’s report, the company signed renewable energy PPAs in the range of 10 gigawatts late last year and claimed to have been working to reduce emissions at the same time.
In addition to Microsoft’s own activities, it has also been reported that a significant part of the emissions related to the company come from external sources, such as pressure on third parties.
