Microsoft’s Newest Sustainable Datacenter Region Coming to Arizona

Microsoft aims to be carbon negative by 2030. The company has also committed to run 100% on renewable energy in all of its data centers by 2025. In a step towards this direction, Microsoft has announced that its sustainable datacenter region will come up in Arizona in 2021.

The region will be called the West US 3 region. Microsoft in addition to opening the new region has also committed itself to help replenish water in this region. The company had announced plans to invest in solar energy in Arizona. It has been working with El Mirage and Goodyear on water conservation, education, and other sustainability projects in the state.

The new region will also have “availability zones” that will have independent power, network, and cooling. The data center design in the region will contribute to the sustainability of the Microsoft facilities in Arizona. “In Arizona, we’re pursuing Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold certification, which will help conserve additional resources including energy and water, generate less waste and support human health,” said Microsoft in a statement. The company is also looking to upgrade to zero waste-certified operations for this new region.

Microsoft has partnered with Nox Innovations to build sustainable data centers in the region. Nox Innovations is building these data centers with the help of Microsoft HoloLens 2, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Remote Assist, and Microsoft mixed reality partner solution VisualLive.