Carbon-free energy for Microsoft data centre

Microsoft has announced it is partnering with sustainable electricity retailer Ecotricity to ensure its new data centre in New Zealand will be powered by 100% carbon-free energy when it launches. The data centre will only use Toitu carbon-zero certified electricity from solar, wind and hydro energy sources.

The partnership is a key step towards Microsoft meeting its sustainability commitments in the region, said Brett Shoemaker, Chief Sustainability Officer, Microsoft ANZ.

“It also shows how cloud computing can be made even more efficient if those data centres are powered using energy from renewable and carbon-free sources. In fact, a study found that using the Microsoft Azure cloud platform can be up to 93% more energy efficient and up to 98% more carbon efficient than on-premise solutions.”

Microsoft measures the energy efficiency of its data centres around the world using the power usage effectiveness (PUE) metric. This is calculated by dividing a data centre’s total power consumption by the amount of power used to run the IT equipment.

A lower PUE score indicates a more energy-efficient data centre, with a PUE of 1.0 being the best score. Microsoft’s new data centre in NZ is expected to have an average PUE score of 1.12, which is line with its new Australian data centres.

The company has also made a global commitment to end its dependence on diesel fuel in favour of backup power generators in its data centres by 2030, and is currently piloting the use of renewable-blend, cleaner-burning fuels to power backup generators in some data centre regions. In addition, it is trialling the replacement of data centre backup generators with long-duration batteries.

In another measure to reduce emissions, Microsoft’s new data centres are being built in accordance with Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), a globally recognised green building certification program. LEED provides the framework for healthy, highly efficient and cost-saving green buildings with lower carbon emissions. New Microsoft data centres are being designed to earn LEED Gold certification.

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