Microsoft recently announced that it will soon build two advanced data centers in Sweden. The company commits to design the greenest ever data centers in the most sustainable and advanced way. These will be powered by 100% renewable energy sources with an aim to avoid the waste from operations.
“We intend for our datacentres in Sweden to be among the most sustainably designed and operated in the world with the ultimate ambition of achieving zero-carbon operations,” said Noelle Walsh, CVP, Cloud Operations & Innovation, Microsoft Corp. “The data center design we’re developing will further Microsoft’s ongoing commitment to transition to a sustainable, low-carbon future.”
The new data centers will be placed in Gävle and Sandviken, the cities just north of the capital Stockholm. Microsoft has partnered with sustainable energy firm Vattenfall AB for required power supply. Vattenfall has been a regular electricity provider of Microsoft. It generates the power by its ‘Wieringermeer Polder’ wind farm in the Netherlands. Together, they are planning ways to reduce the carbon footprint of advanced data centers to zero.
“We will support Microsoft on the sourcing and supply of renewable energy for the future datacentres and help provide innovative solutions to reduce the carbon footprint of the datacentres. Vattenfall Distribution as the regional network owner will construct and build the distribution infrastructure required to connect the large-scale facilities,” said Andreas Regnell, Senior Vice President, Strategic Development, Vattenfall.
Microsoft is not only working on clean data centers but also finding ways to increase access to clean energy. For this, it has associated with Agder Energi, a producer of renewable energy and Powel AS, software solutions provider for utilities industry in Norway.
Microsoft already has data centers in Finland, Ireland, France, Austria, Germany, the U.K., and the Netherlands. Microsoft said it had picked Sweden for data centers “in anticipation of future needs for cloud and internet services as demand in Europe continues to grow.”
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