Microsoft has announced that it has matched 100% of its global electricity consumption with renewable energy, marking a major step in the tech giant’s “moonshot commitment” to become carbon negative by 2030.

In a blog detailing the company’s carbon‑reduction progress, Microsoft execs Melanie Nakagawa, chief sustainability officer, and Noelle Walsh, president of cloud operations, said the firm had built “one of the largest clean energy portfolios in the world,” with 40 GW of renewable energy contracted, and 19 GW of which are now online.

These contracts, or “power purchase agreements,” span more than 400 separate contracts with 95 utilities and developers across 26 countries, deals which Microsoft said will deliver enough energy to power about 10 million homes.

PPAs are long‑term contracts where a company agrees to buy electricity directly from a specific energy project, such as a wind farm or solar plant, and are often for infrastructure that hasn’t been built yet. Microsoft, for instance, said that 90% of its renewable energy came from agreements for new projects, where its backing was critical for success. 

By providing a financial commitment through PPAs, Microsoft is helping to get renewable projects off the ground by guaranteeing a buyer, while also locking in a stable electricity price for its own use.

However, these deals also allow companies to claim progress toward clean‑energy or emissions goals, with Microsoft saying that its reliance on renewables has reduced the company’s emissions from electricity by about 25 million tons of CO2.

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Big tech firms are dominating in clean energy procurement, with a recent BloombergNEF report showing that Meta, Amazon, Google and Microsoft were responsible for 49% of global PPA volume last year, deals which resulted in 55.9 GW of clean power.

Despite Microsoft’s high‑profile clean‑energy pledges, including its “100/100/0” goal announced for matching 100% electricity use, 100% of the time with zero‑carbon sources, it lagged in clean energy buying last year.

Examining offsite PPAs, BloombergNEF found that Meta and Amazon buy enough clean energy to power Denmark at 20.4 GW, with Meta buying more than 10GW alone, to power the firm’s massive data centre build out. 

According to the IEA, while electricity consumption from data centres is estimated to amount to around 415 terawatt hours (TWh) today, expectations are that this will double to around 945 TWh by 2030, with renewables expected to “meet all the additional global demand” over the next three years.

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