Microsoft and Brookfield Renewables

“Microsoft has agreed to back an estimated $10bn in renewable electricity projects to be developed by Brookfield Asset Management, in a deal that underscores the race to meet clean-energy commitments while satisfying the voracious power demands of cloud computing and artificial intelligence”

“The ‘global framework agreement’ signed by the Seattle-based tech giant is a commitment to bring 10.5 gigawatts of generating capacity online, or enough to power the equivalent of about 1.8mn homes. That will be added to the grids from which data centres draw electricity”

“Brookfield said the capacity was about eight times larger than the previous single biggest corporate renewable electricity purchase agreement, a deal between the mining company Rio Tinto and an Australian solar farm”

“Microsoft expects its partnership with Brookfield to help finance large new wind and solar farms to be built between 2026 and 2030, beginning in the US and Europe”

“The International Energy Agency says that by 2026 data centres could globally consume more than 1,000 terawatt-hours of electricity, more than double 2022 levels and roughly equal to Japan’s total electricity usage”

“Five-year forecasts for the growth in electricity demand in the US have nearly doubled in the past year from 2.6 per cent to 4.7 per cent, according to a report from Grid Strategies”

“The anticipated increase has raised alarm from energy watchdogs over whether antiquated power grids can meet the surge in consumption without slowing the move to renewables or posing a threat to reliability”

“The initial Microsoft-Brookfield agreement is more than three times larger than the 3GW of power used by data centres in Virginia—the world’s largest hub for such facilities”

“The US added 33.8GW of utility-scale renewable energy projects last year, the highest amount on record, bringing the total renewable capacity on the grid to 262GW, according to American Clean Power, an industry group”

“Renewables developers are increasingly striking long-term power deals with large corporations, helping both sides get some certainty over long-term power prices”

“In addition to Microsoft, Brookfield has announced power purchase agreements with Amazon”

“Corporate deals covering a record 46GW of solar and wind capacity were announced in 2023, with Amazon the top purchaser”