Microsoft to keep buying enough renewable energy to match all its electricity needs

Advertisement Business Microsoft to keep buying enough renewable energy to match all its electricity needs FILE PHOTO: A view shows the Microsoft logo on the day of the Hannover Messe, one of the world's largest industrial trade fairs with this year's partner country being Canada, as both Canada and the European Union face new U.S. tariffs, in Hanover, Germany, March 31, 2025. REUTERS/Fabian Bimmer/File Photo 19 Feb 2026 12:06AM Bookmark Bookmark Share WhatsApp Telegram Facebook Twitter Email LinkedIn Set CNA as your preferred source on Google Add CNA as a trusted source to help Google better understand and surface our content in search results. Read a summary of this article on FAST. Get bite-sized news via a newcards interface. Give it a try. Click here to return to FAST Tap here to return to FAST FAST DUBLIN, Feb 18 : Microsoft has promised to keep buying enough renewable energy to match all its electricity needs after meeting that goal for the first time last year, as tech giants ramp up capital expenditure on an AI-fuelled expansion of power-hungry data centres. The company said on Wednesday that it had reached its 2025 goal by contracting 40 gigawatts of new renewable energy supply, mainly through power purchase agreements - long-term contracts that help utility providers to bring new projects forward. Nineteen gigawatts of that renewable energy has already been supplied to the power grid, Microsoft said, with the rest to follow over the next five years and covering 26 countries in total."As we continue to grow we want to maintain that 100 per cent," Microsoft's cloud operations chief Noelle Walsh said at the sprawling West Dublin campus where the company built its first data centre outside the United States in 2009. Subscribe to our Chief Editor’s Week in Review Our chief editor shares analysis and picks of the week's biggest news every Saturday. This service is not intended for persons residing in the E.U. By clicking subscribe, I agree to receive news updates and promotional material from Mediacorp and Mediacorp’s partners. Loading Chief Sustainability Officer Melanie Nakagawa told Reuters that carbon-free electricity, such as the deal Microsoft signed in 2024 with Constellation Energy to restart a nuclear plant in Pennsylvania, would play an increasing role in continuing to meet the 100 per cent matching target out to 2030, by which time the Windows maker aims to have become carbon negative.$50 BILLION INVESTMENT Microsoft said separately on Wednesday that it was on pace to invest $50 billion by 2030 to expand AI to countries across the 'Global South', most of which will fund cloud and AI data centres.Walsh said a recent Irish government move to lift an effective moratorium on data centre grid connections would allow Microsoft to meet "tremendous" pent-up demand in the tech-rich country. Microsoft expects to press ahead with stalled proposals for a data centre campus outside Dublin once a regulatory policy requiring new data centres to meet at least 80 per cent of annual demand from additional renewable power begins to be implemented next month, Eoin Doherty, Microsoft's cloud operations lead for EMEA, said.Data centres accounted for 22 per cent of Ireland's power consumption in 2024. Source: Reuters Newsletter Week in Review Subscribe to our Chief Editor’s Week in Review Our chief editor shares analysis and picks of the week's biggest news every Saturday. Sign up for our newsletters Get our pick of top stories and thought-provoking articles in your inbox Subscribe here Get the CNA app Stay updated with notifications for breaking news and our best stories Download here Get WhatsApp alerts Join our channel for the top reads for the day on your preferred chat app Join here Advertisement Also worth reading Content is loading... Advertisement Expand to read the full story Get bite-sized news via a newcards interface. Give it a try. Click here to return to FAST Tap here to return to FAST FAST