Energia Group will supply Microsoft with electricity from new renewable wind and solar assets for the software company’s Irish operations under a corporate power purchase agreement (CPPA).
The announcement was made together with the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Leo Varadkar TD, as part of wider developments by Microsoft which will see the technology company contribute close to 30% of Ireland’s CPPA target by 2030.
Through its overall CPPA commitments, Microsoft said it will add more than 900MW of wind and solar energy to Ireland’s electricity grid and that its data centres in Ireland will be supported by 100% renewable energy by 2025.
Energia’s agreement with Microsoft will see the Irish energy company construct new onshore wind farms and solar power projects that will supply renewable electricity to the grid to be purchased by Microsoft for its activities in Ireland.
The developer is progressing a pipeline of almost 3GW of new renewable energy projects across the island of Ireland.
Energia Group CEO Ian Thom said: “As an Irish energy company with a proven history of delivering new renewable energy projects and for providing innovative solutions for our customers, today’s announcement with Microsoft highlights the value of collaboration in bringing about collective benefit for society, enterprise and the economy.
“Energia Group has set clear targets to promote Ireland’s energy transition and to facilitate the achievement of the Government’s 2030 targets that will be realised through our pipeline of almost 3000MW of new renewable projects across a range of technologies, including offshore wind, onshore wind and solar.
“This agreement represents another step towards the achievement of these targets.”
Noelle Walsh, Corporate Vice President, Cloud Operations and Innovation, Microsoft said: “At Microsoft, we’re committed to becoming carbon negative by 2030, working with governments globally to accelerate the journey to a net-zero future.
“We’re proud to be partnering with Energia Group to bring this additional renewable energy on stream and help Government and the broader energy sector to achieve its climate action ambitions.”
Energia said it already supplies approximately 21% of the island of Ireland’s total electricity requirements and is responsible for approximately 25% of existing wind power capacity installed on the island.