Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) has announced that it has signed a deal for the acquisition of an Irish wind project from General Electric Company (NYSE:GE).
The company announced the deal on Monday, revealing a 15-year power purchase agreement with General Electric (GE). The agreement is for the purchase of 100 percent of the wind energy generated by GE through its megawatt Tullahennel wind farm which is located in Kerry County Ireland. The deal also makes Microsoft the first multinational tech firm to support a new wind project in the country.
The Microsoft-GE deal is strategically aimed at supporting the increasing demand for Microsoft’s Cloud services in Ireland. The software giant has also another deal with ElectroRoute, an energy trading firm based in Dublin and this is also part of the wind project deal. The Dublin-based company will offer its energy trading services to Microsoft as part of the new agreement.
"Microsoft is proud to be deepening our long history of investment and partnership in Ireland with this agreement. Our commitment will help bring new, clean energy to the Irish grid, and contains innovative elements that have the potential to grow the capacity, reliability, and capability of the grid," stated Christian Belady, Microsoft’s general manager for Datacenter Strategy.
The wind project will not only provide energy but it will also focus on generating valuable data regarding energy storage. Each of the turbines will be fitted with an integrated battery and both GE and Microsoft will carry out research to determine how best these batteries can be used to store the excess electricity generated by the turbines. The energy stored in the batteries released into the grid when it is required.
Andres Isaza, the Chief Commercial Officer at GE’s renewable energy division stated that the new Microsoft deal will significantly boost GE’s footprint in Ireland where it has already hired 1,500 people including those in the renewable energy sector. Isaza also pointed out that wind energy has become one of the most competitive sources of renewed energy in the market.
Microsoft stock closed the latest trading session on Monday at $76.29.
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