This month, Seattle hosted the Asia-Pacific Financial Cooperation (APEC) Senior Officers’ and Ministerial Conferences, and Microsoft was honored to welcome the APEC member power ministers and their delegations to our campus for a private-sector decarbonization roundtable.
APEC’s member economies play a crucial function in advancing Microsoft’s and the world’s clear power objectives. The 21 economies account for greater than half the world’s power demand and over two-thirds’ the world’s electrical energy technology.
Microsoft has a direct curiosity in an expanded and clear electrical grid with over 60 Azure areas working now or coming quickly, and greater than 300 datacenters throughout the globe. Over half of those areas are in APEC economies. Our cloud companies are an asset to governments, firms, and innovation throughout the planet and we require dependable electrical energy to gas this technological innovation in each nation we function.
Throughout this dialogue, we discovered extra concerning the distinctive alternatives and challenges related to decarbonizing the electrical grid in APEC member economies and areas. It additionally supplied an excellent alternative to mirror on our three high priorities on this house: including extra clear power to the grid; modernizing and increasing electrical energy transmission; and making certain a strong clear power provide chain.
Including extra clear power to the grid
At Microsoft, our long-term imaginative and prescient is to succeed in a state the place, on all of the world’s grids, 100% of our electrical energy, 100% of the time, is generated from zero-carbon sources. On the trail to reaching this imaginative and prescient, our goal is to cowl 100% of Microsoft’s load with renewable power purchases by 2025; which means that we plan to have clear power contracted for one hundred pc of carbon emitting electrical energy consumed by all our information facilities, buildings, and campuses.
Primarily based on our expertise, insurance policies that broaden market entry for company procurement might help speed up the transition to a dependable and resilient clear electrical energy grid.
Now we have prioritized efforts to broaden the availability of unpolluted power technology within the areas the place we function around the globe, to be able to energy our rising operations, native grids, and our provide chain with clear power. Microsoft has signed agreements for the procurement of over 13.5GW of unpolluted power in 16 markets around the globe together with a number of APEC economies.
We’re additionally utilizing our buying energy to unlock the clear power alternatives of the longer term. Our current settlement to buy fusion power from Helion, an organization constructing the world’s first fusion power plant, is a superb instance of this work. This settlement with Helion will advance the market to determine a brand new, environment friendly technique for bringing extra clear power to the grid, quicker.
Modernizing and increasing electrical energy transmission
One of many greatest obstacles to higher availability of unpolluted power is that power grids, infrastructure planning and allowing processes should not match for goal.
To help the event and deployment of further clear power technology, it’s important there’s a dependable and resilient transmission grid. As zero-carbon sources are added to the grid at an accelerated tempo, the community of wires that can ship that electrical energy to houses and companies should additionally considerably broaden. In virtually each nation, new transmission strains face planning, resourcing, or allowing obstacles. Simplifying this course of and pondering creatively about tips on how to fund new grid infrastructure will assist unlock financial alternative and progress, and enhance the resilience of the grid.
An expanded grid must also be a contemporary grid using digital applied sciences and synthetic intelligence (AI) to establish efficiencies and enhance operations. We’re excited concerning the function that AI can play to hurry the tempo of transition, assist successfully combine new applied sciences on the grid, and improve the cybersecurity of crucial power-sector infrastructure.
We’re beginning to see some coverage progress on this space. In america, the Federal Vitality Regulatory Fee (FERC) not too long ago handed a brand new rule geared toward shortening processes and breaking backlogs. The brand new federal rule would require grid managers to evaluate tasks in clusters as an alternative of one after the other, with deadlines and penalties for failing to complete interconnection research on time.
Making certain a strong clear power provide chain
Unlocking this clear power technology and transmission construct out would require a strong and various clear power provide chain.
At Microsoft, we’re pursuing collaborations on this house that may assist develop this provide chain. In January, we introduced a strategic alliance with Qcells, owned by Hanwha Options headquartered in Seoul. This settlement will allow a robust provide chain for brand spanking new renewable electrical energy capability, and is projected to require no less than 2.5 gigawatts of photo voltaic panels and associated companies – equal to powering over 400,000 houses.
Entry to reasonably priced and dependable electrical energy is a crucial enabler of financial improvement, social welfare, improved well being and different constructive societal outcomes. As our world turns into more and more interconnected, electrified, and technology-driven, the demand for electrical energy will proceed to develop.
Microsoft is dedicated to serving to the world efficiently transition to a clear power future as a primary mover, as an investor, as a buyer, and as a thought chief. By working collectively and sharing greatest practices, we’ve got a chance to make this crucial transition and mitigate the worst results of the local weather disaster.
