Microsoft Buys into Largest Dutch Windfarm Expansion

Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland)--Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) (Redmond, Washington) has signed a deal with Swedish energy giant Vattenfall AB (Stockholm, Sweden) to buy 100% of the power from the proposed expansion of one of the largest onshore windfarm projects in the Netherlands.

Vattenfall said that it will repower and expand the Wieringermeer Polder windfarm with a generating capacity of 49 megawatts (MW) to 180 MW, with all of the power being purchased by Microsoft for its data centre operations nearby. The data centre serves as a regional hub to deliver Microsoft Cloud services to customers across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The project will be constructed and operated by Nuon Energy (Amsterdam, Netherlands), part of Vattenfall.

Vattenfall expects to invest 200 million euro ($232 million) in expanding the windfarm, which will start generating power in 2019 and become the second-largest onshore windfarm in the country when completed.

"We are very glad and proud to be able to support Microsoft's transition towards using fossil-free energy in their data centre operations," said Magnus Hall, president and chief executive officer of Vattenfall. "This deal is completely in line with our strategy to help all of our customers to power their lives in ever-smarter ways and free from fossil fuel within one generation."

"This is Microsoft's second wind energy project in Europe, closely following a new Irish wind farm announced about a month ago," said Christian Belady, general manager, Microsoft Cloud Infrastructure and Operations, Microsoft. "Once completed, this wind project will bring Microsoft's total global direct procurement in renewable energy projects to almost 800 MW. With these wind projects, we're making considerable progress against the corporate clean energy commitments we set for ourselves in 2016."

Last month, Microsoft signed a deal with General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) (Fairfield, Connecticut) to purchase 100% of the energy produced by a proposed 37-MW windfarm at Tullahennel in County Kerry.

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