Microsoft has signed a Power Purchase Agreement to procure solar power in Singapore.
EDP Renewables (EDPR) last week announced a 20-year contract with Microsoft, which will see the cloud provider purchase 100 percent of the renewable energy exported to the grid from the energy firm's 200MWp SolarNova 8 project.
EDPR said phase eight of the SolarNova program, which will see up to 200MWp of solar capacity spanning across 1,075 Singapore public housing buildings and 101 government-owned buildings, is both the largest solar project in Singapore and the largest initiative under the government’s SolarNova program.
"We are strengthening EDP’s global collaboration with Microsoft through this project and together we are taking a step towards achieving Singapore’s sustainability goals of at least 2GWp of solar energy by 2030," said Miguel Stilwell D’Andrade, CEO of EDP Renewables. "Contracting with Microsoft is a catalyst for accelerating the energy transition and to continue investing in the region."
Adrian Anderson, GM of renewables and carbon-free energy at Microsoft, added: “Microsoft appreciates the global relationship that we’ve built with EDPR, enabling our companies to drive grid decarbonization efforts in Singapore, the US, and Europe. Building our renewable energy portfolio with EDPR ensures that we can continue to secure renewable energy supply to meet our ambitious renewable energy and decarbonization goals."
Microsoft opened its Singapore Azure cloud region in 2010; the region has three availability zones. The company was among the four granted permission to develop new data center capacity in Singapore last year amid a relaxing of restrictions. It has previously signed a 60MW solar PPA with Sunseap.
Launched in 2014, Singapore’s SolarNova program deploys solar panels atop government-owned buildings and housing. The program aims to generate an estimated 420GWh of solar energy annually; equivalent to around five percent of Singapore’s total energy consumption. Under the scheme, solar energy is first used to power common services, such as lifts, lights, and water pumps, on estates belonging to Singapore's Housing Development Board during the day, with excess energy channeled to the grid.
Equinix has previously signed a PPA to offtake from the SolarNova 7 program, set to launch in 2027.
EDPR has previously signed PPAs with Google in the US and Netherlands as well as Meta in Texas. It has signed at least one PPA in Europe with an unnamed technology company.
Microsoft is one of the largest corporate buyers of renewable energy in the world – the company has told DCD it has brought 34GW of capacity to the grid.
2024 has seen the company sign PPAs in Ohio, Ireland, India, and France, as well as two PPAs in Texas totaling more than 800MW with Leeward Renewable Energy and RWE. It has also signed a 500MW distributed solar deal across the US with Pivot, and wind and solar deals in Europe with Repsol and European Energy.
