【Roman Perez Jr. Archives】

When big tech companies team up with governments it can Roman Perez Jr. Archivesbe good for the environment, as well as a PR win.

Microsoft just signed a deal with GE in Ireland to buy 100% of the electricity from its new 37-megawatt Tullahennel wind farm in Ireland for the next 15 years.

The new wind project will see some of Microsoft's cloud data centres in the country using exclusively clean energy as a power source, bringing the company's total global direct procurement in renewable energy projects to almost 600 megawatts, according to a statement.

Everyone can see how this is a good PR and economic move by Microsoft, which will get a cheaper energy bill while at the same time meeting its commitments for renewable energy.

But there's more.

The wind turbines will have an integrated battery and Microsoft and GE will team up to provide data on energy storage. The stored energy in excess will be given back to the Irish grid, this way serving the wider population.

As explained by Microsoft, the project will be the first deployment of battery integration with wind turbines in Europe:

Microsoft and GE will test how these batteries can be used to capture and store excess energy, and then provide it back to the grid as needed. This provides more predictable power to an increasingly green Irish grid, by smoothing out peaks and valleys in wind production. This will better enable intermittent clean power sources like wind energy to be added to the Irish grid..

Christian Belady, general manager, Datacenter Strategy at Microsoft said: “Our commitment will help bring new, clean energy to the Irish grid, and contains innovative elements that have the potential to grow the capacity, reliability and capability of the grid. This will make it easier to incorporate new clean power sources like wind energy, and that is good for the environment, for Ireland and for our company.”