Microsoft : As the world goes digital, datacenters that make the cloud work look to renewable energy sources

Harrison of BloombergNEF also said that it's important that companies like Microsoft are active in seeking policies that favor clean energy.

"Lobbying with utilities and working with regulators to open up more access for clean energy buying is a massive role that Microsoft and other companies are currently playing," he says.

[Link] Microsoft's advocacy for clean energy starts in-house.By 2025, Microsoft will shift to 100% supply of renewable energy, meaning that the company will have PPAs for green energy contracted for 100% of carbon-emitting electricity consumed by all its datacenters, buildings and campuses.

By2030 Microsoft will have 100% of its electricity consumption, 100% of the time, matched by zero-carbon energy purchases.By 2050, Microsoft has committed to removing from the environment all the carbon the company has emitted, either directly or by electrical consumption since it was founded in 1975. Datacenters can play a role in helping reach these goals.

Moreover, the ability to ensure the cloud meets Europe's needs and serves Europe's values is a core part of a new set of European Cloud Principles  Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith announced in May of this year, after discussions with a number of European partners.

Supporting the market for renewables

Using innovative approaches, Microsoft has been demonstrating how datacenters can conserve power, reduce emissions and even contribute energy back to the grid.

In Finland,waste heat from two new datacenters will contribute to the district heating system that provides warmth to more than 250,000 people in winter. The Microsoft datacenter region in Swedenuses rainwater and outside air to cool servers, while using the heat they produce to keep work areas warm for employees. Also in Sweden, Microsoft is piloting batteries to displace diesel generators as backup systems.

Microsoft's datacenters in Ireland use batteries to maintain an uninterruptible power supply. In a collaboration between Microsoft and Enel X, those batteries can provide grid services through an instantaneous interaction with the power grid. On days when wind and/or solar power production is fluctuating, Microsoft's backup batteries can be used to help maintain a steady flow of energy to power customers.

That means fossil-fuel burning power plants will be needed less often to maintain steady power, cutting emissions and fuel costs.

[Link]"The great thing about the project in Ireland was that those batteries were already there," says Janous of Microsoft. "What it required was providing that digital layer of intelligence to determine what does the grid need to help balance the frequency on the system?

"Those assets, which are ubiquitous in datacenters, are all over the world. And it creates a huge opportunity to be able to see the datacenter as something more than a consumer of energy, but also a producer and a partner to grid operators to improve reliability and ultimately the energy transition that we've been talking about."

Looking ahead

It is the technology companies' "work in digitalization, artificial intelligence and information systems that could be potential game-changers in creating the smarter, more flexible energy systems needed to get to net-zero emissions," write Kamiya and Varro in the IEA analysis.

Harrison of BloombergNEF also cited the potential for the development of digital tools to help grid operators shift loads during periods of high demand. He says the internet of things (IoT) and artificial intelligence (AI) could help create energy efficiency in a variety of ways.

AI can be used for everything from smoothing out supply-chain issues to creating more accurate local weather forecasting to helping providers find ways to capture more energy.

While AI and machine learning will add to demand for cloud computing, Janous notes that those advanced tools are also likely to be essential in solving some of the biggest problems we're facing.

"Energy transitions are historically very slow because they involve massive amounts of infrastructure," he says. "We need close partnerships with grid operators and energy companies in Europe to help them figure out what are the most efficient and fastest ways to accelerate this transition" to renewable energy sources.

"We need the digital tools that datacenters provide to accelerate that transition."