Microsoft and Canada's Brookfield Asset Management have struck an agreement for the development of renewable energy that could make one of the biggest corporate purchases of green energy to date, the companies said on Tuesday.

Under the "first of its kind" agreement, Brookfield said it plans to develop over 10.5 gigawatts of new wind and solar farms for Microsoft as the tech giant looks to power its data centers and operations globally with carbon-free electricity by 2030.

The deal underscores how some of the world's biggest companies are making major investments in clean energy to meet climate goals while also remaining competitive in the race to roll out artificial intelligence.

Delivering AI and cloud services is expected to see demand for electricity skyrocket as tech companies rush to build more resource-hungry data centers that will increase the dependency on over-burdened power companies.

"This collaboration with Brookfield drives the innovative development of more diverse energy grids globally and contributes to delivering our goal of achieving 100 percent of our electricity consumption, 100 percent of the time, matched by zero carbon energy purchases by 2030," said Adrian Anderson, general manager of renewables at Microsoft.

The companies did not disclose financial terms for the agreement, which would potentially provide enough electricity needed to power millions of homes.

The agreement will allow Brookfield to expand its portfolio of wind and solar projects in the United States, Europe and potentially other regions over the coming years.

The company is "thrilled to collaborate with Microsoft to support their customer demand with the build-out of over 10.5 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity," said Connor Teskey, CEO of Brookfield's renewable power unit.

The scale of the deal, nearly eight times larger than the biggest corporate renewable energy purchase agreement ever signed, demonstrates both Brookfield's renewable development muscle and Microsoft's purchasing power as a technology leader.

The framework agreement builds on Microsoft and Brookfield's existing collaboration and extends it to provide over 10 times more renewable capacity between 2026 and 2030, the companies said.

The deal is focused initially on wind and solar, but could expand to other technologies that can provide carbon-free electricity when the sun is not shining and wind is not blowing.

Microsoft is among major tech companies driving an acceleration in corporate renewable energy buying.

Google, Amazon and Facebook-parent Meta are also among the largest corporate purchasers of clean energy as they try to meet their own zero-carbon emission pledges.

© 2024 AFP