Software and cloud giant Microsoft promises that its electricity-hungry data centers will be 60% powered by renewable energy by 2020. It also ups the ante by saying that the goal will be to achieve 70% mark in renewable power use over the next five years.
Will Calvert filed this report on Microsoft’s green power initiative in DataCenterDynamics:
Microsoft president Brad Smith said in a blog post: “The magnitude and speed of the world’s environmental changes have made it increasingly clear that we must do more. And we are taking new steps to do just that. “Time is too short, resources too thin and the impact too large to wait for all the answers to act. There’s an incredible opportunity to be realized by acting, supported by data and technology, on climate change.”
Microsoft said that it will also launch a new data-driven circular cloud initiative using the Internet of Things, blockchain and AI to monitor performance and streamline our reuse, resale and recycling of data center assets, including servers.
Smith added: “We will add water to our long-standing carbon and energy commitments, launching a new water replenishment strategy where we will replace what our operations consume in water-stressed regions by 2030.”
Earlier this year, Greenpeace’s preliminary clicking clean report revealed that Microsoft has increased the amount of renewable energy it uses to power its operations in Virginia to 34 percent. The report also revealed that Amazon was lagging far behind on its renewable commitment in Virginia, with only 12 percent of AWS’ energy consumption in the state coming from renewable sources.
