As part of its goal to use more renewable energy in its datacenters, Microsoft said it has entered an agreement with Singapore-based clean energy firm Sunseap. The value of Microsoft’s investment was not disclosed, but an announcement today said it will create “the single-largest solar energy portfolio in Singapore to date.”
During the 20-year agreement, Microsoft will buy 100% of the renewable energy that the solar project, which has a peak output of 60 megawatts, exports to the grid. Sunseap claims to be the leading solar energy provider in Singapore and also operates in other Southeast Asian markets, including Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines.
Microsoft vowed in 2016 to ensure that 50% of the energy used by its datacenters comes from renewable sources. In today’s announcement, Christian Belady, Microsoft’s general manager of cloud infrastructure strategy and architecture, said the company will be able to reach that goal early. The project with Sunseap is Microsoft’s first clean energy deal in Asia and its third in total. Last year, it made agreements to buy all the energy generated by GE’s new wind farm in County Kerry, Ireland and a wind farm operated by Vattenfall in the Netherlands.
Last year, the Singaporean government said it will introduce a carbon tax in 2019 to encourage companies to use renewable energy resources. Microsoft’s datacenters in Singapore power Microsoft Azure, Office 365 and other services for users in Southeast Asia.
“Our cloud services are helping to power Singapore’s digital transformation, and today’s agreement will ensure that transformation is increasingly powered by clean energy. We’re proud to work with Sunseap, the leading solar provider in Singapore, to support the growth of the local clean energy economy,” said Microsoft Singapore managing director Kevin Wo in a statement. “With the agreement, Microsoft will improve the sustainability of our local operations and make important progress toward our corporate sustainability goals for datacenters.”
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