Microsoft has announced renewable energy contracts that the company claims will contribute c.30% of Ireland’s corporate power purchase agreement target by 2030.
The company has entered into multi-year Corporate Power Purchase Agreements with Statkraft, Energia Group, and Power Capital Renewable Energy, related to the development of 900 megawatts of onshore wind and solar energy projects across Ireland.
Microsoft stated that it expects it will cover 100% of its data centre electricity load by 2025 with renewable energy.
Earlier this year, the company outlined its plans to use uninterruptible power supply batteries within its data centres in Dublin for real-time interaction with the power grid on days when wind or solar power production is fluctuating.
Energia said the arrangement will see the company construct a number of new onshore wind farms and solar power projects.
In Association with
Enterprise minister Leo Varadkar commented: “Today’s announcement by Microsoft is very welcome news and will help to ensure that the company’s data centres play a more positive role in bringing new green power to the electricity grid and driving Ireland’s renewable energy transition.”
Noelle Walsh, who heads up Microsoft cloud operations, stated: “This announcement builds on our efforts to make our data centres more sustainable and foster new innovations to support the growth of renewables on the energy grid.
“As we continue to support the growing demand for cloud across public and private sectors, Microsoft is committed to partnering with all stakeholders to help Ireland on its grid decarbonisation journey while unlocking the opportunities of a digital economy and society.”
Statkraft managing director Kevin O’Donovan commented: “Given our rapidly growing wind and solar portfolio, as well as our market trading business, we are well-placed to support companies like Microsoft in achieving their renewable energy ambitions.”
Power Capital Renewable Energy said its pipeline has over 1.2GW of solar assets at various stages of development and construction.
Transition unreadiness
Elsewhere, a report from the Association for Renewable Energy and Clean Technology (REA) has ranked Ireland joint lowest of 13 European countries on its readiness to make the transition to renewable energy.
The Energy Transition Readiness Index 2022 sponsored by Eaton and Eversheds Sutherland, analyses the readiness of Ireland’s energy market to support the progression towards net zero, comparing it to other key European markets.
The report ranks countries on a scale of 1-5, and higher ranking countries scoring ‘5’ and ‘4’ have effective energy transition policies. The report authors say that Ireland’s score of 3 means that Ireland has been ranked joint lowest of all countries surveyed.
Among other causes, the report cites the failure to allow low or zero-carbon projects to connect to the national grid as a factor which is delaying the transition to renewable energy, noting that the situation is “becoming increasingly critical”.
On EV charging specifically, Ireland has received a score of 2 – together with Poland this the lowest score of any surveyed country.
There are c.1,900 charging points installed across the country at present, and REA estimates that Ireland will need to install 100,000 chargers within the next eight years to meet the country’s EV adoption target.
Mark Varian at Eversheds commented: “Ireland has made good progress in the clean energy sector. We now have an output target of 55% renewables for 2030 so major investment in variable and flexible low-carbon electricity resources are needed to achieve this energy transition target, provide energy security and save consumers money.
“In order for investment to continue, we need a speedier role out and implementation of policies and regulatory frameworks that support access to market sectors such as offshore wind. There are huge opportunities here and implementing the recommendations set out in this Index could make a big difference.”
