Microsoft, Pepsi and Visa make moves in week of corporate renewable pledges

Some of the world’s largest and most iconic businesses have chosen this week to make announcements around the full procurement of renewable electricity, laying the groundwork for the deployment of large solar and wind pipelines in the matter of years. On Thursday, technology colossus Microsoft unveiled plans for a green energy purchase spree over the next few years to ensure it can become carbon negative by 2030, avoiding more greenhouse gas emissions than it generates. The firm – a US$126-billion-revenue giant employing close to 150,000 people – said it will line up power purchase agreements (PPA) to ensure its data centres and all other operations are fully powered by renewable electricity by 2025. Headquartered just outside of Seattle, Microsoft has in recent years sponsored solar projects in Virginia (315MW), North Carolina (74MW) and many others, either as a PPA offtaker or actual developer. In Europe, the firm has lobbied for policymakers to enact PPA-friendly laws.