Microsoft Snaps Up Vast Amount of Clean Power for Irish Data Hub

Olivia Fletcher, Bloomberg News

The Raheenleagh Wind Farm near Ballinvally, County Wicklow, Ireland, on Monday, Sept. 20, 2021. Ireland's electricity grid warned of a potential capacity shortfall for the winter periods over the next five years. Photographer: Paulo Nunes dos Santos/Bloomberg , Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- Microsoft Corp. agreed to buy a massive amount of clean energy to power a data center in Ireland, making it the second biggest corporate power-purchase agreement deal so far this year.

The technology giant has signed power-purchase agreements with renewable energy companies to provide it with 900 megawatts of wind and solar energy, according to a statement Wednesday. That trails Amazon.com Inc’s 3.5 gigawatt deal in April.

Big technology firms have faced mounting pressure to clean up their energy consumption, with regulators increasingly concerned about the vast quantities of electricity sucked up by large computing operations. Companies such as Microsoft have struggled in recent months to get planning permission for certain data centers, according to a Nov. 8 report by Bloomberg Intelligence.

Statkraft AS, Europe’s largest generator of renewables, will provide Microsoft with 366 megawatts of wind and solar energy from six projects -- three wind and three solar -- located across the country.

The Norwegian company will fund and manage their construction, and the power-purchase agreement will start once the projects begin operating, it said, without giving a timeframe or disclosing financial terms.

(Update on size of PPA deal in first paragraph.)