Today, we are honored to announce that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has recognized Microsoft as a Green Power Partner of the Year in its 2015 Green Power Leadership Awards. This award recognizes partners who distinguish themselves through their use of green power, leadership, overall energy strategy and impact on the green power market.
Microsoft remains dedicated to driving ever-greater energy efficiency across our business, while also increasing our purchases of green power and making long-term purchase agreements to power our facilities with local renewable energy. We have been 100 percent powered by renewable energy since 2014, and we are pleased to accept this award for the third time. This year we purchased more than 3.2 billion kilowatt hours of renewable energy and made further investments in renewable energy projects. We also support initiatives such as the Buyers’ Principles that facilitate cross-industry collaboration with energy utilities and suppliers to improve access and affordability of renewable energy.
Some of our current energy-related efforts include:
- Wind Power:
- Pilot Hill Wind Project: In 2014, Microsoft purchased 175 megawatts of wind energy from the Pilot Hill Wind Project in Illinois, which generates more than enough energy to power our Chicago datacenter and 70,000 Illinois homes.
- Keechi Wind Project: In 2013, we signed a 20-year agreement to purchase 100 percent of the output of the 110-megawatt (MW) Keechi Wind project, a new wind farm in Texas set to begin operating in 2015.
- Solar Power: We generate a small amount of onsite renewable energy from solar panels covering the rooftops on our Silicon Valley campus.
- Hydroelectricity: A number of our datacenters have been built in regions predominantly powered by hydroelectricity, such as our complex in Quincy, Washington.
- Smart Buildings & Energy Efficiency: Over the past two years, Microsoft has cut energy use by approximately 10 percent at our 125-building, 500-acre Redmond campus with the help of our Energy-Smart Buildings initiative. Every new building we construct is built to high environmental standards and uses approximately 20 percent less energy than baseline buildings, consumes less water and generates less construction waste.
Investments in renewable energy are foundational to our overall sustainability strategy. In 2012, Microsoft made a commitment to become carbon neutral in our operations, including datacenters, development labs, offices, manufacturing, and business air travel. We have achieved carbon neutrality by operating more efficiently and investing in renewable energy and carbon offset community projects. Through our work with customers in the private and public sectors, and in our own operations, we look forward to discovering new ways that technology can help us all make better use of energy and water, and attain a more resource efficient and environmentally sustainable future. Learn more about our sustainability approach at microsoft.com/environment.