Sweden’s largest wind power operator Vattenfall has signed a 10-year agreement to provide electricity to Microsoft for its international data centre operations in the Netherlands. Microsoft will receive all the energy output from Wieringermeer wind farm to be installed approximately 40 kilometers north of Amsterdam.
Vattenfall would invest over 200 million euros ($233.06 million) to ‘repower and expand’ the Wieringermeer facility, which will be home to 100 windmills. These will produce around 1.3 billion kilowatt hours of renewable electricity, equivalent to the consumption of around 370,000 homes.
“Investing in local clean energy to power our local data center is a win-win for our business and the Netherlands. Microsoft is committed to bringing new renewable energy sources online to power our data centres,” said Brian Janous, Microsoft’s general manager of energy in a statement. The Wieringermeer wind farm will begin producing renewable energy from 2019.