American clean energy company, Constellation, has announced that it is collaborating with Microsoft on the development of a 24/7/365 carbon-free energy matching technology solution that allows customers to fully achieve their zero-emissions goals.
By combining renewable and clean energy with exciting new technologies such as battery storage, fuel cells, and hydrogen, Constellation says that it will be able to provide customers with a real-time, data-driven carbon accounting solution that goes beyond the current practice of annualising renewable energy certificates and credits. As it develops this product, Constellation will be working with Microsoft to create software that gives customers a transparent and independently verified view of their sustainability efforts.
“Constellation is leading our nation’s response to the climate crisis, and we are building new tools to accelerate progress on behalf of our customers,” said Joseph Dominguez, CEO of Constellation. “This Microsoft partnership aligns with both companies’ commitment to advancing the critical transition to carbon-free energy. Our collective expertise supports customers’ increasing need to understand and reduce their carbon footprints.”
“In addition to collaborating with Constellation to develop the 24/7/365 solution, Microsoft will become one of its first customers, pioneering use of the new tools to intake, store, match and report emissions data on an hourly basis,” said Ravi Krishnaswamy, corporate vice president, Microsoft Cloud for Industry. “Over time, we look forward to realising additional synergies between the two companies to further enhance our ability to serve our customers while advancing Microsoft’s commitment to sustainability.”
Currently, most net-zero clean energy supplies are achieved by offsetting energy use through clean energy certificates or credits on an annual basis, without considering where or when the energy was produced. Constellation and Microsoft’s new 24/7/365 solution takes the guesswork out of carbon accounting by matching electricity use with a local clean energy source in real-time.
In December 2021, the U.S. government issued an executive order requiring federal government facilities to transition to 100 percent carbon-free electricity by 2030, committing that at least half will be locally supplied to meet 24/7/365 demand. To support this order, the U.S. Government has issued a Request for Information (RFI) from companies interested in supplying carbon-free electricity to federal government facilities. Constellation intends to submit an RFI for consideration and the partnership with Microsoft is a critical component to supporting this initiative.
Additionally, Microsoft will purchase a portion of its clean energy supply from Constellation over five years, representing the first power sales agreement between the two companies. Constellation will also adopt Microsoft’s Azure cloud platofrm to develop clean energy solutions with enhanced data analytics, enabling Constellation customers to better understand their environmental footprint and take action to achieve their ESG goals.
This announcement comes only a month after Constellation launched as one of the US’s largest providers of carbon-free energy with a host of sustainability products and services to help companies like Microsoft achieve their environmental objectives. Constellation also has set its own climate goal of achieving 95 per cent carbon-free electricity by 2030 and 100 per cent carbon-free electricity by 2040. In addition, Constellation plans to achieve a 100 per cent reduction of operations-driven emissions by 2040 and provide 100 per cent of its business customers with customised data to help them reduce their own carbon footprints.
