SSE Renewables and FuturEnergy Ireland have entered into a long-term wind corporate power purchase agreement (CPPA) with Microsoft.
Under the terms of the deal, the renewable electricity produced by the seven Vestas V117-4.3MW turbines at the 30MW Lenalea Wind Farm will contribute towards Microsoft’s goal of powering its data centre operations with 100% renewable energy by 2025.
Today’s announcement is additional to 900MW of renewable energy CPPAs in Ireland that Microsoft announced in November 2022.
Of that capacity, more than 216MW of onshore wind and solar energy projects have already reached commercial operation, delivering clean energy to the country’s grid, with a further 250MW due to reach commercial operation this year.
This agreement is the first long-term CPPA to be jointly entered into by co-development partners SSE Renewables and FuturEnergy Ireland.
CPPAs, such as this one, provide important routes to market for renewable energy developments, and play a valuable role in enabling the development and accelerated delivery of renewable energy generation to underpin Ireland’s decarbonisation targets.
The deal with Microsoft will also provide for a Community Benefit Fund of approximately €150,000 per year.
The allocation of funds by way of annual grants will be overseen by a locally appointed Community Committee, which has already been established.
A funding strategy will be developed in conjunction with the Community Committee to inform and shape the structure of the fund.
Eoin Doherty, Vice President, EMEA Regional Leader, Microsoft Cloud Operations and Innovation, said: “At Microsoft, we are committed to playing our part in supporting the decarbonisation of energy grids in markets in which we operate data centres.
“With the Lenalea Wind Farm achieving commercial operations, we are taking another important step on our journey to achieve 100% renewable energy supply and support wider efforts to add clean energy capacity to Ireland’s energy grid.”
Stuart Donnelly, Director of Corporate Power Purchase Agreements, SSE Renewables, said: “Securing our first long-term Corporate PPA for new onshore wind in Ireland is a satisfying milestone for SSE Renewables and our development partner FuturEnergy Ireland.”