The South Korean company Hanwha and the American corporation Microsoft have agreed to cooperate in the field of solar energy. Microsoft is entering into “electricity purchase agreements” with energy suppliers to encourage the development of new solar and wind energy projects. This was done in order to try to achieve the set goals in the field of clean energy. The deal was struck due to supply chain issues and allegations of workplace abuse, which made it more difficult to introduce solar power across the US.
It is planned that solar energy heavyweight Cells will provide developers cooperating with Microsoft with more than 2.5 gigawatts of solar panels and additional services. According to Microsoft, this should be enough to power about 400,000 homes.
Microsoft aims to cut greenhouse gas emissions by more than half by around 2030. That is, by the end of the decade, Microsoft plans to fully receive energy from zero-carbon sources in the areas where they work. There are also plans to counteract the already existing pollution by trying to remove it from the atmosphere.
Since 2012, Microsoft has technically purchased enough clean energy to match its electricity consumption. But this does not mean and does not guarantee that the company’s activities are really carried out on renewable energy sources on a permanent basis.
Complicating the situation is that the solar industry is facing serious problems in the supply chain — especially in the United States. Solar energy production is concentrated in China, which supplies about 80 percent of the world’s solar panels. This concentration makes the solar energy supply chain more vulnerable to bottlenecks, and the main one recently has been accusations of forced labor in the autonomous region of China. The US blocked more than 1,000 shipments of solar energy parts between June and October last year after banning imports from the area. These trade barriers have significantly slowed the development of solar installations in the United States.
Cooperation with the South Korean manufacturer is part of Microsoft’s strategy to switch to the use of exclusively renewable energy sources in all its divisions by 2025 and achieve climate neutrality by 2030.
The issue of climate problems is really very important and worries people in recent years. So I wonder what the results of such an agreement and cooperation will be.
Sources:
https://vervetimes.com/microsoft-strikes-strategic-alliance-with-solar-manufacturer/amp/