Microsoft simply shaped a strategic alliance with a serious photo voltaic panel producer to attempt to meet clear vitality objectives. The deal comes as provide chain issues and allegations of labor abuses make it more and more troublesome to unfold photo voltaic vitality throughout the US.
The plan is for photo voltaic vitality heavyweight Qcells to supply greater than 2.5 gigawatts of photo voltaic panels and associated providers to builders working with Microsoft. That is sufficient to energy about 400,000 houses, in accordance with Microsoft, which hailed the collaboration as a “first-of-its-kind.”
Provide chain issues and labor abuse allegations make it tougher to unfold photo voltaic vitality throughout the US
Since 2012, Microsoft has technically bought sufficient clear vitality to match its electrical energy use. However that does not imply the corporate’s operations run on renewables on a regular basis. Not sufficient photo voltaic and wind are related to electrical energy grids, with renewables making up solely 20 p.c of the US electrical energy combine.
Microsoft has created “energy buy agreements” with vitality suppliers to encourage the event of latest photo voltaic and wind initiatives. The purpose is that, by the tip of the last decade, Microsoft will get its whole vitality provide “from zero carbon sources within the grids the place we function.”
To make issues tougher, the photo voltaic business faces main provide chains – particularly within the US. Photo voltaic manufacturing is concentrated in China, which provides about 80 p.c of the world’s photo voltaic panels. That focus makes the photo voltaic provide chain extra susceptible to bottlenecks, and a serious one lately has been accusations of pressured labor in China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Area. The US blocked greater than 1,000 shipments of photo voltaic vitality components between June and October final yr after banning imports from Xinjiang, Reuters reviews. These commerce limitations have slowed U.S. photo voltaic installations.
It seems that Microsoft is making an attempt to keep away from the bottleneck by partnering with South Korea-based Qcells. Earlier this month, Qcells introduced it will spend greater than $2.5 billion to construct a “full photo voltaic provide chain … from uncooked materials to completed panels” within the US. It plans to construct a brand new manufacturing facility in Georgia, the place it additionally operates what it says is the most important photo voltaic panel manufacturing plant within the Western Hemisphere.
“As one of many largest patrons of renewable vitality on the planet, this work will assist deliver extra photo voltaic vitality to the grid, sooner,” stated Microsoft vice chair and president Brad Smith in a press launch yesterday.
Microsoft can actually use cleaner vitality on the grid because it struggles to chop local weather air pollution. The corporate’s greenhouse gasoline emissions will truly improve by about 2.5 million metric tons in fiscal yr 2021 in comparison with final yr with elevated gross sales of machine and cloud providers, in accordance with its newest sustainability report. .
