Microsoft has just published this year's Sustainability Report, which shows a staggering annual carbon footprint of 15.4 million tonnes. Of this, 97% is Scope3, meaning it is predominantly related to the construction and operation of data centres, with AI as the main driver. Google, Meta, Amazon and, of course, Microsoft have all come up with nuclear energy solutions to solve the huge energy needs of AI: it has been reported in the news that Microsoft is even considering restarting the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania, which was closed down five years ago. Okay, not the unit that became infamous because of the film The China Syndrome, but the other one. Which is not so easy, because not only would the 815 MW reactor have to be refurbished, but it would also have to be re-licensed, and the price tag for that is now, according to the latest news, comparable to a new nuclear project.
The link between nuclear energy and AI as a clickbait topic has received significantly less attention in the news, but Microsoft, for example, is not only interested in nuclear energy, but also in all other unconventional solutions: be it wind and solar, complex green energy services, or fusion technology. What I see in this is Microsoft's ongoing search for the complex, multi-factor solution aligned with its sustainability strategy announced 5 years ago, which is expected to eventually deliver the achievement of true carbon neutrality by 2030, and then to go even further by turning its carbon balance so negative that it will also neutralise all of its historical emissions by 2050.
All this reminds me of the two announcements made within a short time by the Redmond company on the (pre-)financing of long-term carbon offtake projects (carbon offtake agreement), which fit in well with this big picture, and which I already explored in an earlier article due to their revolutionary nature. One back in March about a long-term, one-and-a-half million tonne deal in which the tech giant will acquire removal (or 'extraction') credits in an Indian reforestation project over the next 30 years, thus committing to nature-based neutralisation. The other is that - for similar reasons, but approaching the issue from a different, technological angle - it has recently signed a 12-year agreement to (pre-)finance 3.7 million tonnes of novel pulp-industry-technology carbon capture in the US.
These ground-breaking carbon deals show Microsoft's commitment, but also that the company has been one of the largest players in the voluntary carbon market on the buy-side for years, and with 6 million tonnes of carbon credits redeemed in 2024, it was the second largest buyer in the global carbon market behind Shell, even though its carbon footprint is a fraction of the oil company's emissions. This volume is far beyond the carbon footprint of Scope 1, 2, the company already offsets around 40% of its Scope 3 data centre-related emissions with quality carbon credits, and the proportion is steadily increasing, reaching full offset in 2030. This is how AI goes green, and Microsoft is setting an example for all to follow!
This article was first published on the 24th June, by Levente Tóth, CEO of mitigia, on their personal LinkedIn profile.