Total and Microsoft collaborate to hit zero emissions

  • March 16, 2021
  • Steve Rogerson

French energy group Total is collaborating with Microsoft to further digital transformation and support progress towards net-zero emissions.

The dynamic development of Microsoft and Total in their respective areas of expertise and their histories of innovation brings many concrete opportunities for collaboration over a multi-year timeframe.

For example, Total’s global presence and market knowledge can support Microsoft’s sustainability objectives, including its 2025 target for renewable energy and contribute to the energy efficiency and carbon footprint reduction efforts of its data centres.

Total will further leverage the cloud platforms of Microsoft. Total has decided to accelerate its IT transformation and leverage the power of Azure for digital transformation projects and for Total Digital Factory. Total will broaden and enrich its existing modern workplace environment, based on Microsoft Office 365, which will provide collaboration and productivity for its employees and its operations. Total will also explore the value of Microsoft’s Power Platform to automate business processes, reduce cost and allow easier access to data for its citizen developers.

The two companies plan to explore and co-innovate on areas of collaboration around sustainability, digital transformation and AI, accelerating the transition to a net-zero economy, for example, the deployment of low-carbon and carbon-removal technologies.

As part of its sustainability objectives, Microsoft aims to eliminate its dependency on diesel fuel by 2030. Total, through its affiliate Saft, will support Microsoft in its development of a long-term roadmap to diesel-free operations, initially by helping Microsoft assess the suitability of various Total technologies as part of Microsoft’s portfolio of onsite backup energy assets.

Microsoft sees large-scale batteries as a key component on its path to eliminate dependency on diesel fuel, which is used in generators to provide backup power for data centres. Microsoft and Total established a partnership to assess the long-term feasibility of deploying large batteries as backup power for critical infrastructure. This assessment is being carried out with the help of Saft.

Uninterruptible power supply (UPS) batteries play a critical role within Microsoft’s data centre infrastructure. Saft batteries will help Microsoft improve its specifications to its UPS suppliers and ultimately meet its sustainability goal. This includes energy savings, higher safety, lower cobalt and a self-powered monitoring system to ensure optimised system availability.

Microsoft has made a public commitment to use 100% renewable energy by 2025. Total’s ambition is to reach 35GW of renewable electrical capacity in 2025 and then nearly 100GW in 2030. Total will help Microsoft secure renewable energy through power purchase agreements (PPAs). A first PPA of 47MW has been agreed for Microsoft’s Spanish operations.

Microsoft and Total are also working on emerging technologies critical to a net-zero pathway and digital methods that can accelerate their adoption.

“The rapid development of Total and Microsoft in their areas of expertise brings many opportunities of cooperation for both companies, who are at the forefront of the fight against climate change,” said Patrick Pouyanné, CEO of Total. “We are committed to bringing our expertise by selling green electricity to support Microsoft in achieving its sustainability goals, and we’re pleased to rely on Microsoft’s cloud and AI to accelerate our digital transformation. This is fundamental to drive progress towards a world with net-zero emissions.”

As part of its ambition to get to net zero by 2050, Total is building a portfolio of activities in renewables and electricity that should account for up to 40% of its sales by 2050. At the end of 2020, Total’s gross power generation capacity worldwide was around 12GW, including 7GW of renewable energy. Total will continue to expand this business to reach 100GW of gross production capacity from renewable sources by 2030 with the objective of being among the world’s top five in renewable energies.

“We have an enormous opportunity to use advances in digital technology to reduce greenhouse emissions,” said Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft. “Our strategic partnership with Total will apply the power of Azure, Microsoft 365 and Power Platform to this challenge and accelerate Total’s digital transformation, as we work towards a future of net-zero emissions.”