Microsoft commits to reduced ANZ data centre emissions

Microsoft has partnered with sustainable electricity retailer Ecotricity to ensure the company’s new data centre region in New Zealand is powered by 100% carbon-free energy when it launches. The data centre region will only use Toitu carbon-zero certified electricity from solar, wind and hydro energy sources.

The company says the partnership is a key step towards Microsoft meeting its sustainability commitments.

It also shows how cloud computing can be made even more efficient if data centres are powered using energy from renewable and carbon-free sources. In fact, a study found that using the Microsoft Azure cloud platform can be up to 93% more energy efficient and up to 98% more carbon efficient than on-premise solutions.

Microsoft has made a global commitment to match 100% of its electricity consumption, 100% of the time, with carbon-free energy purchases globally by 2030. It will also take other steps to reduce its emissions.

The company says it regularly measures the energy efficiency of its data centres around the world using the power usage effectiveness (PUE) metric. This is calculated by dividing a data centre’s total power consumption by the amount of power used to run the IT equipment. A lower PUE score indicates a more energy-efficient data centre, with a PUE of 1.0 being the best score. Microsoft’s new data centre in NZ is expected to have an average PUE score of 1.12, which is line with its new Australian data centres.

Microsoft has a global commitment to end dependence on diesel fuel — which accounts for less than 1% of its overall emissions — for backup power generators in data centres by 2030.

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