Microsoft and Constellation Add Transparency to Net Zero with Carbon Accounting Solution

(Credit: Constellation)

Constellation, America’s top clean energy producer supplying 10% of the nation’s carbon-free electricity, is partnering with Microsoft to develop a carbon accounting solution that offers customers a better way to monitor their clean energy efforts.

Currently, most net zero clean energy supplies are achieved by offsetting energy use through clean energy certificates or credits on an annual basis, without considering where or when the energy was produced. Constellation and Microsoft’s 24/7/365 solution makes carbon accounting less abstract by matching electricity use with a local clean energy source in real time. By providing hour-by-hour regional tracking, the solution will give customers clearer and more accurate data on their emissions impact than other net zero programs that aggregate clean energy megawatts over time.

Constellation will utilize renewable and clean energy along with the latest battery, fuel cell, and hydrogen technologies to provide customers with a real-time, data-driven carbon accounting solution that goes beyond the current practice of annualizing renewable energy certificates and credits. As it develops this product, Constellation will be working with Microsoft to create software that gives customers a transparent and independently verified view of their sustainability efforts.

The market for 24/7/365 real-time energy matching is growing. In December 2021, the U.S. government issued an executive order requiring federal government facilities to transition to 100% carbon-free electricity by 2030, with at least half being locally supplied to meet 24/7/365 demand. Constellation, with the help of Microsoft, hopes to be one of the companies supplying this carbon-free electricity.

Additional benefits of the partnership include:

• Microsoft will purchase a portion of its clean energy supply from Constellation over five years, representing the first power sales agreement between the two companies.
• Constellation will adopt Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform to develop clean energy solutions with enhanced data analytics, enabling Constellation customers to better understand their environmental footprints and take action to achieve their environmental, social and corporate governance goals.
• Constellation and Microsoft will seek to use their expansive customer bases and business partnerships to advance clean energy technology, including migration to Microsoft Azure and enhancements to Constellation’s smart utility expense management platform, Pear.ai

Commenting on the partnership, Ravi Krishnaswamy, corporate vice president, Microsoft Cloud for Industry, stated:

“In addition to collaborating with Constellation to develop the 24/7/365 solution, Microsoft will become one of its first customers, pioneering use of the new tools to intake, store, match and report emissions data on an hourly basis. Over time, we look forward to realizing additional synergies between the two companies to further enhance our ability to serve our customers while advancing Microsoft’s commitment to sustainability.”

Constellation has set its own climate goal of achieving 95% carbon-free electricity by 2030 and 100% carbon-free electricity by 2040. In addition, Constellation plans to achieve an 100% reduction of operations-driven emissions by 2040 and provide 100% of its business customers with customized data to help them reduce their own carbon footprints.