Microsoft strikes AI-fuelled record-breaking green power deal with Brookfield – Recharge

Microsoft will underpin Brookfield Asset Management’s development of 10.5GW of renewables projects in what is claimed to be by far the largest corporate power purchase agreement of all time, as the tech giant races to keep up with the ravenous energy demands of its data centres and artificial intelligence.

Microsoft has signed a global framework agreement with Brookfield to help the tech giant meet its goal of “having 100% of its electricity consumption, 100% of the time, matched by zero carbon energy purchases by 2030.”

The deal will see Brookfield develop renewables projects in the US and Europe between 2026 and 2030, the Canadian infrastructure investment titan said in a press release today (Wednesday).

The deal is eight times larger than the previous single biggest corporate power purchase agreement ever signed, claimed Brookfield.

The 10.5GW in projects could together power 1.8 million homes and are likely to cost over $10bn to deliver, the FT estimates.

Brookfield said there is also potential to expand the “scope and development capacity” of the deal, both within its target regions of the US and Europe, and beyond to the Asia-Pacific, India and Latin America.

The huge deal is the latest indication of the skyrocketing energy demands of data centres amid a continuing boom in digitalisation.

The parallel boom in artificial intelligence, with its own voracious power demands, has thrown further fuel on the fire.

After consuming around 460TWh of power in 2022, the International Energy Agency estimates data centres’ total electricity consumption could reach more than 1,000TWh in 2026.

“As the global trend of digitalisation and the adoption of AI continues to drive growth in demand for electricity, we are thrilled to collaborate with Microsoft to support their customer demand,” said Connor Teskey, president of Brookfield and CEO of its subsidiary Brookfield Renewable.

Teskey said the record-breaking deal “is a testament to our ability to reliably deliver clean power solutions at scale to our corporate partners and accelerate the energy transition.”

Last year, Teskey said that the need to power the AI boom could see tech giants one day each needing as much green power as the UK.

The energy demands of data centres have led tech giants such as Microsoft to dominate in the corporate green power deal space.

Last year, market intelligence provider BloombergNEF said that 46GW of corporate power purchase agreements were signed. Amazon, whose subsidiary Amazon Web Services runs data centres worldwide, was the runaway leader, snapping up 8.8GW of capacity.

Now at 33GW, Amazon’s clean energy portfolio was described as “greater in size than the power generation fleets of markets like Belgium and Chile.”

This article has been updated with details from Brookfield’s press release

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