Microsoft has partnered with battery technology provider Primus Power to work on a pilot program to advance energy storage at datacenters globally.
Planned to be implemented in partnership with NRG Energy, the University of Texas at San Antonio, and battery technology providers, the project is a part of Microsoft’s broader focus to explore new technologies for energy storage and management for its datacenter.
The team will determine effective ways to store large scale renewable energy to ensure electricity it is inexpensive and available for future needs.
The pilot program has been announced at a summit held in White House on scaling renewable energy and storage with smart markets.
The event involved regulators, power companies, municipalities, and energy developers that are promoting smart electricity markets and greater grid integration of renewable energy and flexible resources such as energy storage.
The new initiative will also assess storage technologies that use batteries to act as grid resources to improve reliability, energy efficiency and usability of renewable energy.
Microsoft chief environmental strategist Robert Bernard said: "Datacenters are the engine that drives the Microsoft Cloud, and we are committed to investing in innovation breakthroughs at our datacenters that can help improve energy efficiency.
"By using high performance batteries we can improve both energy efficiency, as well as our ability to use variable energy sources like wind and solar power. In the future, with these types of innovation, the datacenter could effectively operate independently of grid capacity constraints."