An innovative public-private deal will bring 20 megawatts of new solar energy onto the grid in Virginia as part of Microsoft’s ongoing commitment to carbon neutrality. The project — a partnership between Microsoft, the commonwealth of Virginia and Dominion Virginia Power —will support the growth of renewable energy in Virginia.
This will help Microsoft maintain our ongoing commitment to carbon neutrality by bringing new renewable energy directly onto the grid. Our decision to purchase and retire the green attributes from this new solar project is consistent with how Microsoft approaches all our renewable energy purchases, and is a core aspect of our corporate commitment to environmental sustainability.
This project will support the growth of renewable energy in Virginia while allowing Microsoft to claim the green attributes of a brand new solar project constructed by Dominion. We’ll then be retiring these green attributes to maximize the positive environmental impact overall.
While Microsoft’s global operations have been carbon neutral since 2012, we’re continuing to seek out new and innovative ways which enhance access to renewable power sources. This represents Microsoft’s first direct partnership with one of our utilities for a renewable energy project. This new project builds on the success of our more traditional power purchase agreements (PPAs) that we have used to supply clean energy to Microsoft’s data centers, like the 175-megawatt wind project in Illinois and 110-megawatt wind project in Texas.
Through these kinds of partnerships with states and utilities, Microsoft can provide the long-term certainty needed to expand the amount of renewable energy available on the grid. We are excited that through this project we have created a viable new public-private partnership model for the company and look forward to expanding on this new approach.