Microsoft to Buy Full Output from Illinois Windfarm

Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) (Redmond, Washington), which aims to generate all of its electricity from renewable sources by 2025, has entered into a long-term power purchase agreement (PPA) to receive the full output from a windfarm in Illinois.

Independent power producer Cordelio Power's (Toronto, Ontario) 171-megawatt (MW) Moraine Sands Windfarm in Illinois, is expected to be completed later this year. It is about 25 miles east of an operational windfarm from Cordelio Power that already has a 15-year PPA in place with Microsoft: the 185-MW Glacier Sands Windfarm. Both facilities utilize wind turbines provided by Vestas Wind Systems A/S (Aarhus, Denmark). Subscribers to Industrial Info's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) Power project and plant databases can click here to read more information on the Moraine Sands project, and click here for more information on Glacier Sands.

According to a January report from the American Clean Power Association (ACP) (Washington, D.C.) on corporate buyers of clean energy in the U.S., Microsoft trailed just Amazon.com Incorporated (NASDAQ:AMZN) (Seattle, Washington), Meta Platforms Incorporated (NASDAQ:META) (Menlo Park, California) and Alphabet Incorporated (NASDAQ:GOOGL) (Mountain View, California), the parent company of Google, with 4,511 MW of contracted capacity in 2022. For more information on the report, see Industrial Info's January 20, 2023, article - Tech Giants Lead in Buying Record Amount of Clean Power.

Microsoft has signed PPAs with AES Corporation (NYSE:AES) (Arlington County, Virginia) for clean energy in two states, in order to power the tech company's data centers: in California, a 20-year agreement for generation from unnamed solar and energy-storage projects in the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) region, and in Virginia, a 15-year agreement for generation sourced from unnamed wind, solar and battery-energy storage assets in the PJM market.

That's not all Microsoft is doing to curb its carbon emissions and advance the U.S. clean energy transition. In January, the tech giant announced a partnership with Hanwha Q Cells (Qcells), a unit of Hanwha Group (Seoul), "to enable a strong supply chain for new renewable electricity capacity projected to require at least 2.5 gigawatts of solar panels and related services."

Qcells will work with the tech giant to develop solar projects and provide panels and engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) services to selected solar-power projects that have contracted PPAs with Microsoft. Industrial Info is tracking nearly $11 billion worth of projects from Hanwha in the U.S., including more than $8 billion attributed to solar generation and battery energy storage systems (BESS), and $2.5 billion attributed to three solar module-manufacturing projects. Subscribers to the GMI Database can click here for a full list of project reports.

"Building a resilient solar energy supply chain is essential to advancing a global green energy economy," said Brad Smith, vice chair and president of Microsoft, in a related press release. "As one of the world's largest purchasers of renewable energy, this work will help bring more solar energy to the grid, faster."

Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading provider of industrial market intelligence. Since 1983, IIR has provided comprehensive research, news and analysis on the industrial process, manufacturing and energy related industries. IIR's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) helps companies identify and pursue trends across multiple markets with access to real, qualified and validated plant and project opportunities. Across the world, IIR is tracking over 200,000 current and future projects worth $17.8 Trillion (USD).