Microsoft inks clean energy deals to meet its climate goals

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) signed a 437.6 MW green attribute contract with Indian renewable energy company ReNew (RNW).

The contract is expected to generate over one million units of green electricity attributes per year, contributing to Microsoft’s ambition to be carbon-negative by 2030, according to the companies.

“This agreement with ReNew accelerates our progress towards these goals while benefiting local communities through initiatives such as rural electrification and initiatives to improve women’s livelihoods,” said Puneet Chandok, president, Microsoft India & South Asia.

As part of the agreement, ReNew will direct about $15M of revenue from the contract towards a community fund to support environmental justice initiatives focused on women’s livelihoods and economic empowerment, energy access, rural electrification and water quality improvement, among other things.

Separately, Microsoft will buy solar power generated by panels on hundreds of public housing and government-owned buildings in Singapore in an effort to meet its climate objectives, Bloomberg News reported.

Madrid-based EDP Renewables said that Microsoft will buy 100% of the energy exported to the grid from its SolarNova 8 project. SolarNova is the largest solar project in Singapore and EDP Renewables won the phase 8 of the government-initiated program in February, the report added.

Microsoft will purchase all the renewable energy exported to the grid from the SolarNova 8 project, which can produce up to 200 megawatts but will use some of this to power the buildings, in a 20-year offtake agreement.

This is the second agreement between the two companies in Singapore.

The SolarNova program in total will generate about 420 gigawatt-hours of power annually, or about 5% of Singapore’s total energy consumption, as per the report. SolarNova 8 is the biggest phase.