How Major Infrastructure Helped Microsoft Hit Renewable Goal

Microsoft signed its first power purchase agreement (PPA) in Texas in 2013, in what was a modest 110MW deal. Now, 13 years on, the company has matched 100% of its global annual electricity consumption with renewable energy.

This constitutes a target it set for itself five years ago as part of its commitment to becoming carbon negative by 2030. The figures behind the milestone are substantial and represent a massive deployment of energy infrastructure.

Since 2020, Microsoft has contracted 40GW of new renewable energy capacity across 26 countries. It has worked with more than 95 utilities and developers through over 400 contracts.

That, according to Offshore Wind Biz, is enough to power every home in Scotland for 17 years. Of that total, 19GW is now online and actively delivering clean energy to power grids worldwide.

The remainder is scheduled to come online within five years. Microsoft says its renewable procurement has reduced its reported Scope 2 carbon dioxide emissions by an estimated 25 million tonnes.

Melanie Nakagawa, Microsoft's Chief Sustainability Officer, and Noelle Walsh, President of Cloud Operations and Innovation, jointly authored the announcement.

They characterised today's milestone as a "shared achievement among the utility professionals, clean energy developers, community leaders, technology innovators and forward-thinking policymakers".

Scaling infrastructure through pipelines

Central to the strategy has been building repeatable commercial structures that other corporate buyers can adopt. A landmark 10.5GW framework agreement with Brookfield illustrates the scale of infrastructure development Microsoft is now operating at.

This deal is one of the largest single clean energy deals on record. The agreement is designed to send what Melanie describes as a long-term demand signal that enables developers to raise financing more efficiently and build out supply chains.

Microsoft currently has six energy partners with more than a gigawatt of contracted capacity each. It also has more than 20 partners with at least five separate projects apiece.

The diversity of the 95 developers involved highlights the global scope of this initiative. By spreading contracts across 26 countries, Microsoft ensures a wide base of infrastructure growth rather than relying on a few isolated markets.

This is a structure the company argues demonstrates durable, replicable commercial relationships rather than one-off procurement.

Developing new energy markets

Beyond volume, Microsoft points to market development as a meaningful part of its contribution. In Japan, it signed one of the first corporate PPAs in the country's restructured power market.

This was a 25MW, 20-year virtual PPA with Shizen. Microsoft credits that deal with helping to catalyse more than 2GW of corporate clean energy procurement in the country since 2024.

In India, Microsoft purchased a 437MW solar and wind hybrid offtake from Renew. This was structured to support energy access and rural electrification.

In its home state of Washington, data centres in Douglas County are supplied by a blend of new wind power and hydropower storage. This delivers what the company describes as around-the-clock carbon-free energy.

Expanding beyond traditional renewables

Noelle acknowledged the scale of what remains, noting that the world's rising electricity needs "require a balanced, all-of-the-above decarbonisation strategy".

To that end, Microsoft is already looking beyond wind and solar infrastructure. It has partnered with Helion and Constellation Energy on a 50MW fusion project in Washington state.

It also struck a deal with Constellation to restart the 835MW Crane Clean Energy Centre in Pennsylvania. This is a nuclear facility that had been shut down.

Furthermore, Microsoft's Climate Innovation Fund has allocated US$806m across 67 investees. 38% is directed towards energy systems including carbon-free power, energy storage and grid management.

The International Energy Agency described a new "Age of Electricity" driven by data centres, electric vehicles, heat pumps and air conditioning.

This is precisely the infrastructure that Microsoft is contributing to and now claiming to power with clean energy. Whether the company can hold that claim as electricity demand accelerates will be the real test of its 2030 ambition.