Microsoft Strives for a Carbon-Free Future. A Setback in Fargo Shows the Hard Reality.
30 Janvier 2020 - 11:59AM
Dow Jones News
By Russell Gold
Hours after Microsoft Corp. pledged to eliminate its carbon
emissions within a decade earlier this month, the company was
forced to fire up fossil fuel generators to power its corporate
campus in Fargo, N.D.
The software giant ran the diesel-burning machines for about
five hours to keep the lights and heat on for 1,600 employees. It
is one of about 100 big companies in the Fargo region ordered to do
so by the local electric cooperative, which faced high demand for
power. Microsoft receives a significant discount on its electricity
rates in exchange for using backup power a few times a year.
The discharges were tiny relative to Microsoft's ambitious
climate goals, which include switching to 100% renewable energy in
five years and eliminating by 2050 all the greenhouse-gas emissions
it has produced since its founding in 1975. But they demonstrate a
larger point: Corporations face a monumental challenge in living up
to their climate pledges if they are reliant on other companies for
energy.
Lucas Joppa, Microsoft's chief environmental officer, said he is
confident the company can meet its goals but understands it will be
difficult. He expects stumbles along the way.
"No one should have their head in the sand" about the difficulty
of the energy transformation for the global economy, Mr. Joppa
said. Microsoft, he added, was "investing heavily in alternative
backup options" that will allow it to get rid of its diesel
generators.
A growing number of companies are committing to cut emissions
from everything from the electricity they use to fuel burned during
employees' commutes. Last week, Johnson & Johnson said it would
target a 20% reduction in carbon emissions by the end of 2020.
British supermarket chain J. Sainsbury PLC recently pledged to
reduce its direct emissions substantially by 2040, and Pernod
Ricard SA, maker of Absolut vodka and Jameson whiskey, said it
would use 100% renewable energy by 2025.
Hitting these targets can be much harder than setting them, as
companies confront the often Byzantine world of energy consumption
and long-term power contracts.
Engie Impact, a division of French utility giant Engie SA, is
trying to build a business around advising companies and
governments on converting climate pledges into reality. Last year,
when it studied 1,200 companies that had set public
carbon-reduction goals, it found less than a quarter were on track
to meet them.
"It isn't a lack of willingness. It is just super-complex," said
Mathias Lelievre, Engie Impact's chief executive. "You need to go
very deep. It is not an easy journey," he added.
Microsoft has met earlier climate commitments to reduce business
travel and incorporate a carbon price for internal strategic plans.
Its strategy for reaching its new goals is more comprehensive than
at many other companies, requiring it to take more carbon out of
the air than what it generates in its global operations and supply
chain. It pledged to spend $1 billion over the next four years to
develop carbon-removal technology that can be deployed on a large
scale.
Microsoft has had a presence in Fargo since it acquired Great
Plains Software Inc. in 2001, and it has substantially expanded
over the years. Its campus south of downtown is served by Cass
County Electric Cooperative, which in turn gets its electricity
from Minnkota Power Cooperative.
Based in Grand Forks, Minnkota generates two-thirds of its
electricity from two large coal-burning plants. It is considering a
$1 billion investment to capture carbon emissions at its largest
coal plant and inject them underground, an idea made more
financially feasible as a result of a new federal tax credit.
Ben Fladhammer, a Minnkota spokesman, said it asks companies to
deploy diesel generators on cold days, when power demand for
heating rises sharply. The program is the "most economic, reliable
and environmentally responsible way to manage peak load
conditions," he said.
The power situation means Microsoft is far from its goal in
Fargo, Mr. Joppa said. The company hopes to sign long-term deals to
purchase wind or solar energy, but greening the grid can be
difficult when the company doesn't own the power grid or the
electric generation, he acknowledged.
"What we want is to just plug into the grid and have 100% of the
electrons that enter our facilities be 100% from renewable sources,
100% of the time," he said. "We are trying to operate within the
constraints or the parameters the system has dealt us," he
added.
Write to Russell Gold at russell.gold@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 30, 2020 05:44 ET (10:44 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Engie (EU:ENGI)
Graphique Historique de l'Action
De Fév 2024 à Mar 2024
Engie (EU:ENGI)
Graphique Historique de l'Action
De Mar 2023 à Mar 2024