Microsoft commits to running data centers off 50% renewable energy
by 2018 cloud to reduce fuel consumption
Microsoft announced it plans to
power its data centers around
the world using 50% renewable
energy by 2018. The company also
plans to boost its use of renewable
power for its data centers to 60%
by the early 2020sRob Bernard,
Microsoft’s chief environmen-
tal & cities strategist, made the
announcement at the VERGE16
conference last week. Bernard’s
comments during a conference
keynote were a reiteration of a
commitment earlier this year by
the company to increase its use
of clean energy. Microsoft’s latest
announcement came on the same
day that Apple committed to 100%
renewable energy use by joining
RE100, a global initiative by influ-
ential businesses. To date, RE100
has amassed membership from 77
corporations, including Microsoft.
In Microsoft’s Green Blog, Ber-
nard noted that as the company
begins using the power of the
by public transportation, adopt Microsoft has committed to greater
clean energy like solar power, im- transparency, including reporting
prove food resiliency in a changing its energy consumption across re-
climate, and understand and pre- gions and the mix of sources for the
dict changes in the ocean, “we must power it uses, while continuing to
also ensure that we are building a report its total energy consumption
responsible cloud.” and the impact of its carbon reduc-
tion program.
The company also supports public
policies designed to accelerate the
availability and affordability of re-
newable energy on the grid. Twelve
states are challenging the plan, but
“Tremendous amounts of
Microsoft, along with Amazon,
Apple and Google, signed an am- energy will be required
icus brief in support of the White to power this data-driven
House’s Clean Power Plan, which revolution. The leading
is expected to enter oral arguments
cloud companies have a
later this month.
The plan is a commitment by the responsibility to address
U.S. and 19 other countries and 28 this energy usage,”
leading technology innovators to Bernard wrote.
double funding and other resourc-
es for clean energy research and
development.
The 2016 National Renewable Energy Policy Forum:
This year’s Renewable Energy
Policy Forum takes place as seis-
mic developments in national and
global policies are reshaping the
renewable energy marketplace.
In December, Congress enacted
a major new tax package offering
long-sought stability to the wind
and solar power industries. Just two
weeks earlier, 129 nations at the
COP21 meetings in Paris reached
agreement on an unprecedented
global effort to reduce greenhouse
gas emissions. Taken together,
these developments are a source of
immense promise for the future of
renewable energy in the U.S. and
around the world.
But important challenges remain.
Other renewable technologies,
including geothermal, hydro
and biomass, secured a tax cred-
it extension only through 2016,
and will need quick action from
Congress to keep their incentives
in place. Meanwhile, the Clean
Power Plan moves to the critical
implementation stage, with states
working on their compliance plans
even as legal challenges work their
way through the courts. With tax
credits phasing down just as the
deadlines for most ambitious emis-
sion reductions come into force, the
Clean Energy Incentive Program,
a promising but uncertain new ele-
ment of the Clean Power Plan, may
have a critical role to play.
Moreover, a whole new set of
issues are moving towards center
stage, and this year’s forum will
provide in-depth analyses of these
and other important policies and
address the critical challenges that
 “Driving Growth in a
New Policy Landscape”

New Initiative:
Expanding the Use of Renewable
Energy Around the World
ACORE’s International Initiative
exists to accelerate the transition to
a global renewable energy economy.

In order to accelerate this transi-

tion, ACORE now partners with a
number of countries, multilateral
organizations and global corpo-
rations to foster an exchange of
knowledge and best practices,
identify business opportunities and
promote the use of renewable ener-
gy around the world.

ACORE’s International Initiative

provides a needed platform to
discuss and improve policy and
financial mechanisms for global
renewable energy development.

lie ahead, including the implemen-

tation of the Clean Power Plan, the
achievement of the nation’s COP21
commitments, and the policy sig-
nals and business models needed to
drive continued market evolution
and expansion.