Microsoft Pledges To Use 50% Renewable Energy By 2018

Tech companies need to create more and more data centers across the globe to meet their demands as they further advance cloud computing technology. Data centers happen to be one of the largest consumers of energy on the planet so they are quite a drain on its resources. Major companies like Google, Microsoft, and Apple have pledged to use renewable energy to power their facilities. Microsoft has reiterated its commitment to its cause as it plans to use 50 percent renewable energy by 2018.

Microsoft has pledged to improve the combined data mix in its overall business and data centers. It’s hoping to shift 50 percent of the requirement to renewable energy by 2018 and take it up to 60 percent by the end of this decade. It aims to further increase the role of renewable energy sources in the energy mix in the years that follow.

The energy mix currently stands at 44 percent renewable and 56 percent conventional. Microsoft has also signed a new deal that’s going to add 20 megawatts of new solar energy onto the grid in Virginia.

Microsoft has also committed to be more transparent about its energy consumption across regions and the mix of power that it uses to run its data centers. It will also continue to report about its total energy consumption and impact of its carbon program.

Adnan Farooqui
Categories: Green
Tags: Microsoft, renewable energy