Achieving 100 percent renewable energy with 24/7 monitoring in Microsoft Sweden

Measurement, Metrics, and Certificates

Achieving 100 percent renewable energy with 24/7 monitoring in Microsoft Sweden

In 2020, Microsoft announced that it would be the first hyperscale cloud provider to track hourly energy consumption and renewable energy matching in a commercial product using the Vattenfall 24/7 Matching solution for its new datacenter regions in Sweden, starting in 2021. Vattenfall and Microsoft have announced that the 24/7 hourly matching solution—the first commercial product of its kind—is now generally available. The solution is built using Microsoft’s Azure services, including Azure IoT Central and Microsoft Power BI.

Through this solution, Microsoft Sweden is powered by renewable energy through the procurement of GOs, not just on a monthly or yearly basis, but on an hourly basis. The 24/7 matching of GOs and renewable energy credits (RECs) offers the following benefits:

Businesses can see if their commitment to 100 percent renewable energy cover each hour of consumption and translate sourcing of renewable energy into climate impact.
Energy providers can more easily understand demands for renewable energy hour-by-hour and take action to help production meet demand.
24/7 matching of consumption to production drives true market demand for renewable energy. As 24/7 hourly renewable products are rolled out across the world, they will incentivize investment in energy storage such that energy companies can store renewable energy when it is generating, so they can continue to supply their customers with renewable energy when it is not. Over time, this storage will allow electricity grids to supply 100 percent decarbonized power.
The system can inspire regulatory change in how GOs and RECs are created, acquired and retired.