The proposed datacenters are in anticipation of future needs for cloud and internet services as demand in Europe continues to grow. In its recent Q3 2019 earnings report, Microsoft shared that demand for its cloud offerings drove commercial cloud revenue to $9.6 billion in its most recent quarter, up 41 percent year-over-year.
Viewed as a highly sustainable country, Sweden has made strong commitments to reduce environmental impact and the government is pursuing a progressive Fossil Free Sweden initiative. Microsoft is similarly committed to sustainability, and with the development of new datacenters in Sweden, intends to create some of its most advanced and sustainable to date.
“Vattenfall is fully committed to helping our customers make fossil free living possible within one generation, so this partnership fits very well with our overall strategy. In collaboration with Microsoft, Vattenfall will develop new energy infrastructure to support this datacenter development in Sweden to ensure ample and reliable power for the facilities and improved reliability to the region,” said Andreas Regnell, Senior Vice President, Strategic Development, Vattenfall.
Microsoft will collaborate with Vattenfall, with support from its Node Pole team, on the sourcing and supply of renewable energy for the future datacenters. The two companies will also collaborate to develop solutions to reduce the carbon footprint of the datacenters and construct new power infrastructure to provide stable power for the facilities and the surrounding areas in Sweden in the coming years. Over time, the new power infrastructure will help further reduce the carbon footprint of the facilities.
"We are proud to work with Microsoft on this project. We are committed to helping our customers reduce their carbon footprint and we offer a fast track to these opportunities in Sweden," said Patrik Öhlund, CEO, Node Pole.
Microsoft and Vattenfall previously announced the largest wind energy deal in the Netherlands in 2017. Microsoft purchased 100 percent of the wind energy generated from a 180-MW wind farm adjacent to its local datacenter operations in the Netherlands. The wind farm is being constructed and operated by Vattenfall in the Wieringermeer Polder, north of Amsterdam.
"We intend for our datacenters in Sweden to be among the most sustainably designed and operated in the world with the ultimate ambition of achieving zero-carbon operations. The datacenter design we're developing will further Microsoft's ongoing commitment to transition to a sustainable, low-carbon future," said Noelle Walsh, CVP, Cloud Operations & Innovation, Microsoft Corp.
