Microsoft, General Motors Commit to Largest Wind Power Purchases to Date

Nov. 28, 2016

Microsoft Corporation announced it committed to buy 237 megawatts of capacity from wind farms in Kansas and Wyoming to entirely power a data center in Cheyenne with wind energy. Microsoft announced earlier this year that roughly 44% of the electricity consumed by the corporation's data centers comes from wind, solar, and hydropower, and the company's leadership committed to increasing this percentage to 50% by 2018 and to 60% by early in the next decade.

General Motors also announced its largest renewable energy procurement to date: 50 megawatts of wind power produced at the Cactus Flats wind project being developed in Concho County, Texas. According to the company's news release, the wind power purchase will equal the "electricity needs of 16 of its U.S. facilities, including business offices in Fort Worth and Austin, Texas; a major assembly and stamping complex in Arlington, Texas; and 13 parts warehouses east of the Mississippi River."