Petronas, Microsoft collaborate for 100-MW solar project in Rajasthan

Malaysian oil and gas company, Petroliam Nasional Berhad (Petronas), through its subsidiary Amplus Solar, has entered into a long-term renewable energy partnership with tech major Microsoft for a 100-megawatt (MW) solar project in Rajasthan. 

The co-innovation effort will be focused on building an intelligent platform powered by data and artificial intelligence (AI) to support Petronas’ decarbonisation efforts while establishing a unified sustainability data hub to record, report, and reduce emissions. 

“Our partnership with Microsoft, one of the largest corporate buyers of renewable energy in the world today, is a testament to our innovation-driven projects and dedicated focus on enabling corporations to meet their sustainability goals,” Senior Vice President of Project Delivery and Technology, Bacho Pilong said. 

 “The collaboration also fortifies our common commitment to leverage digitalisation and technology to achieve sustainability’s triple bottom line of people, planet, and profit. We hope this will spur and catalyse more cross-industry synergy to collectively bring forth a better tomorrow,” added Bacho. 

Petronas said, it aspires to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050 as part of its holistic approach to sustainability that balances Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) elements. Towards this end, continues to accelerate its efforts toward reducing Scope 1 and Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions. 

 “To achieve a net zero carbon future, we believe in partnering with every industry to harness the power of technology to address the climate challenges we are confronted with today,” said Microsoft Executive Vice President and President, National Transformation Partnerships, Jean-Philippe Courtois. 

He added that the collaboration enabled both companies to “bring together deep knowledge and technical expertise to further digital transformation in the energy industry with the potential of having a positive impact on the planet”. 

In January 2020, as part of its commitment to become carbon negative by 2030, Microsoft pledged to have 100 per cent renewable energy supply for all its operations by 2025, including its data centres, buildings, and campuses.