Microsoft data centre to be powered entirely by wind

6th November 2017

Vattenfall

Alice Matthews

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A ten year agreement to power Microsoft’s international data centre operations in the Netherlands with wind power has been signed by Vattenfall. The wind power supply deal is the first to date for Vattenfall to a data centre outside the Nordic countries and the largest in this field based entirely on wind power. According to the agreement, Microsoft will receive 100% of the energy output from Vattenfall’s new onshore wind farm that will be constructed at Wieringermeer polder, near Microsoft’s data centre in the Netherlands.

The wind farm will start producing renewable energy from 2019.

“We are very glad and proud to be able to support Microsoft’s transition towards using fossil-free energy in their data centre operations,” said Magnus Hall, President and CEO of Vattenfall. “This deal is completely in line with our strategy to help all of our customers to power their lives in ever smarter ways and free from fossil fuel within one generation.”

Vattenfall is today supplying renewable energy, mainly based on hydro power, to several data centres in the Nordic region.

“Our business customers, including the tech business, increasingly use wind or solar power to meet their renewable targets. We are ready to support customers in this ambition through a wide range of products - in this case by combining our own green production and energy solutions to help Microsoft deliver green IT,” said Martijn Hagens, Vattenfall’s Senior Vice President for Customers and Solutions.

Vattenfall recently announced to invest more than €200m to repower and expand the Wieringermeer wind farm, which on completion will be one of the biggest onshore wind farm in the Netherlands.

Microsoft’s Dutch data centre serves as a regional hub for its cloud services and will provide additional capacity for customers across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, as well as global customers.

“Investing in local clean energy to power our local data centre is a win-win for our business and the Netherlands. Microsoft is committed to bringing new renewable energy sources online to power our data centres,” said Brian Janous, General Manager of energy at Microsoft.

The Wieringermeer Wind Farm will eventually include 100 wind mills. Together, they will produce approximately 1.3 billion kWh (1.3TWh) of renewable electricity, comparable to the consumption of around 370,000 households.