Microsoft has signed a new Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with AES to procure renewable energy for its Californian facilities.
AES Corporation this week announced a 20-year agreement with Microsoft to provide renewable energy to its data centers in California.
In what AES called a “highly customized agreement,” Microsoft will partially match its load at their California-based data centers. AES will source the energy from a portfolio of 110MWAC solar and 55MW, 4-hour storage projects in the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) region.
"Microsoft continues to be a leader in the clean energy transition," said Andrés Gluski, AES President and CEO. "Working in tandem with Microsoft, we co-created a scalable 24/7 carbon-free solution to power its data centers in Virginia, and we are now proud to move forward on another innovative renewable energy supply structure in California."
It's unclear exactly how many data centers Microsoft operates in California. The company has one Azure cloud region in California known as West US and launched in 2012, but that consists of multiple facilities and data halls. It recently filed plans to construct two data centers in San Jose.
"AES' presence and critical capabilities in California will support our transition to 100 percent renewable energy by 2025 and enable us to move forward in having 100 percent of our electricity matched by zero-carbon resources all the time in the state," added Brian Janous, general manager energy & renewables at Microsoft. "We've looked to AES as a partner in PJM [an electric transmission system serving a number of states around the mid-Atlantic US] and now California based on its ability to create innovative commercial structures that meet our needs."
AES previously signed a 15-year agreement with Microsoft covering its data centers located in Virginia in November 2021. The two companies have also made agreements in Chile.
Over the last 12+ months, Microsoft has signed new purchase agreements for more than 5.8GW of renewable energy across 10 countries across more than 35 individual deals. The company has signed deals totaling more than 7.8GW globally.
