Microsoft

Hitachi Energy, E.ON Ink $700M Deal to Strengthen German Grid. Hitachi Energy, the world’s largest transformer manufacturer, has signed a deal worth up to $700 million with German utility E.ON to supply

Holtec International said the Palisades Power Plant, which was closed in 2022 and set for decommissioning, is now the first U.S. nuclear power plant to officially return to operations status. Holtec, which bought the Michigan-based plant to decommission it but instead decided the facility could be restarted, on August 25 said Palisades is now authorized […]

PPL Corp. and investment giant Blackstone Infrastructure have formed a joint venture to build, own, and operate natural gas combined-cycle generation plants in Pennsylvania specifically designed to serve data center loads through long-term energy service agreements (ESAs). The partnership, unveiled at the Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit in Pittsburgh on July 15, represents a strategic […]

A startup company led by former executives with major technology and energy groups is betting on the use of natural gas and battery energy storage to provide data centers with on-site power, freeing those sites from reliance on the traditional power grid.

Major German BESS Project Closes Financing. Energy transition bank NORD/LB announced it has closed an €87 million ($94 million) financing package with Nofar Energy for construction of a 104.5-MW/209-MWh

Constellation Energy’s ambitious plan to restart the Three Mile Island Unit 1 as the Crane Clean Energy Center (CEC) is proceeding ahead of schedule, shooting for a 2028 start date, despite a new report that suggests Microsoft may be re-evaluating its data center strategy. Just five months after Constellation announced a landmark 20-year power purchase […]

Clearloop, a carbon solutions platform for Silicon Ranch that partners with companies in support of decarbonization, on Feb. 25 announced a new multi-year agreement with Microsoft to deploy up to 100 MW of renewable energy projects over the next three years in historically underinvested communities. The new agreement accelerates decarbonization and drives capital investment in […]

Technology giant Microsoft is buying nearly 400 MW of power from three new utility-scale solar projects in Illinois and Texas. EDP Renewables North America (EDPR NA) on Feb. 10 said the installations have come online with long-term virtual power purchase agreements (PPAs), through which Microsoft will take 389 MW of electricity and renewable energy credits. […]

TerraPower, the nuclear energy company founded by former Microsoft CEO and co-founder Bill Gates, announced it has a memorandum of understanding with a major U.S. data center developer to deploy advanced nuclear reactors to power existing and future facilities. TerraPower on Jan. 21 said it will work with Sabey Data Centers (SDC) on “a strategic […]

Facebook parent Meta wants to find developers that can provide nuclear reactors to support electricity demand from the tech company’s data centers and artificial intelligence (AI) efforts. The group said the new generation capacity also could support local power grids. Meta on Dec. 3 announced a request for proposals (RFP) “to identify nuclear energy developers […]

Everywhere you turn these days people are talking about data centers and the enormous amount of electrical power they are expected to demand as artificial intelligence (AI) platforms scale up and become more

As artificial intelligence (AI) adoption skyrockets—and especially generative AI (genAI)—the underlying infrastructure powering these technologies faces unprecedented demands. Data centers, the nerve centers of AI operations, rely heavily on electricity, and their growth is reshaping how we think about energy. The current power consumption by data centers already accounts for about 3% of the world’s […]

A company that provides connectivity and colocation services for customers across North America has announced plans to build a data center campus in Central Ohio. Cologix, headquartered in Denver, Colorado, on Nov. 20 said it had acquired land in Johnstown, Ohio, where it will develop eight artificial intelligence (AI) data centers. Cologix is considered a […]

Nuclear power plants are still being dismantled, and the business of decommissioning remains strong, but the need for more baseload power and emissions-free generation has some companies ready to restart idled

This is indeed an extraordinary time to be in nuclear energy. Case in point: Over the past few months, we have seen an announcement between Microsoft and Constellation Energy to restart the Three Mile Island

Tech giant Microsoft announced an initial investment of $1 billion to support three new data centers in Licking County, Ohio. The company on Oct. 28 confirmed construction of campuses in New Albany, Heath, and Hebron that will support the company’s Azure cloud computing platform as demand for cloud technology and data storage increases. One Columbus, […]

The power generation sector is looking at numerous ways to provide enough electricity to satisfy demand from data centers. Bloomberg Intelligence recently said its research shows data centers, buildings filled with servers and other computing equipment for data storage and networking that supports operations and artificial intelligence (AI), could be responsible for as much as […]

Microsoft has announced a deal to restart the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania. It’s the latest move by a technology company to use nuclear power to provide electricity for energy-intensive data centers and support the use of artificial intelligence (AI). The agreement announced September 20, if approved by regulators, would allow Microsoft […]

$100 billion investment potential will enhance American competitiveness in artificial intelligence (AI) while meeting the growing need for energy infrastructure to power economic growth The drive to develop more powerful AI capabilities will require significant infrastructure investment to support it. BlackRock, Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), Microsoft, and MGX announced on Sept. 17 the Global AI […]

An executive with the TC Energy, a group that is among the largest operators of natural gas pipelines in North America, said electricity demand from energy-intensive data centers will support an increased need for the fuel in the coming years. Stanley Chapman, executive vice president and COO of Calgary, Alberta-based TC Energy, in a May […]

A demonstration project led by Caterpillar at a Wyoming site showed that large-format hydrogen fuel cells could be used to supply backup power to a data center. Caterpillar on Jan. 19 announced the project, done in collaboration with Microsoft and Ballard Power Systems, provided insights into the use of hydrogen fuel cells to support energy-intensive […]

A Massachusetts-based group developing an energy storage system to support renewable energy resources is moving forward with plans for a prototype facility outside Boston. Fourth Power on Dec. 12 said it received $19 million in funding to help scale its technology, which the company said is more cost-effective than lithium-ion (li-ion) batteries and will provide […]

Software giant Microsoft on May 10 announced it has signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) with nuclear fusion startup Helion Energy to buy electricity from Helion as soon as 2028. Andrew Holland, CEO of the Fusion Industry Association, said Microsoft’s deal is the first time a fusion company has signed a deal to sell electricity. […]

LONDON, CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Sep. 15, 2022 — TerraPraxis, a non-profit focused on actionable solutions for climate and prosperity, is collaborating with Microsoft to deliver a digital solution to tackle a significant decarbonization challenge – repurposing over 2,400 coal-fired power plants worldwide to run on carbon-free energy. TerraPraxis is looking to combine its deep expertise […]

HOUSTON, Texas & REDWOOD CITY, Calif. (March 22, 2022) — Energy technology company Baker Hughes (NASDAQ: BKR) is collaborating with C3 AI (NYSE: AI), Accenture (NYSE: ACN) and Microsoft on industrial asset management (IAM) solutions for clients in the energy and industrial sectors. The collaboration will focus on creating and deploying Baker Hughes IAM solutions […]

POWER hosted Experience POWER, the Distributed Energy Conference, and HydrogeNext at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center in San Antonio, Texas, October 18–21, 2021. The events were well-received by

A solar energy project that will provide power for Microsoft has begun commercial operation in Arizona, with the project developer announcing term financing has been completed. Longroad Energy, a Boston-based renewable energy developer that also has offices in California and Maine, on July 20 said the 200-MW Sun Streams 2 array—one of four Maricopa County-based […]

ENGIE, the world’s largest independent power producer, has signed an innovative volume firming agreement (VFA) with Microsoft that will allow the technology giant to buy “firm” power from wind and solar projects in Texas under a specially structured power purchase agreement (PPA).  The companies on Sept. 24 said the long-term PPA will allow Microsoft to […]

TEMPE, Ariz., July 30, 2019 — US-headquartered First Solar, Inc. (FSLR) today announced that its Sun Streams 2 photovoltaic (PV) solar plant will power new energy-efficient datacenters being built by Microsoft Corp. in Goodyear and El Mirage, Arizona. The 150-megawatt (MW)AC facility, is being developed and constructed by First Solar in Maricopa County and will […]