Houston-based microgrid company Enchanted Rock will build a new backup power system for Redmond, Washington-based tech giant Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT).
Enchanted Rock was contracted by Microsoft to develop a microgrid system to provide electrical resiliency to the tech firm's data center in San Jose, California. The new microgrid will be fully supported by renewable natural gas, or RNG, the companies said.
Although today's digital ecosystem relies on the constant uptime of data centers, that continuity shouldn't come at the expense of a company's carbon emission reduction goals or local air quality, said Thomas McAndrew, CEO of Enchanted Rock.
"Microsoft’s decision to pursue a renewable microgrid marks another milestone in the industry as businesses continue to move away from conventional, less carbon-friendly methods, and we expect this project will demonstrate that large-scale, reliable and cost-effective backup generation with net-zero carbon can become the new standard," McAndrew said.
Enchanted Rock sources RNG from facilities that recapture methane emissions, including food waste and agricultural operations. Interest and investment in RNG projects among companies in Houston has grown recently, and the Houston region is already a hub for some of the largest RNG facilities in the nation.
"This project helps Microsoft take a step towards our goal of eliminating dependence on petroleum-based diesel while increasing the resilience of our data center and providing a much-needed capacity resource to the local grid," said Brian Janous, general manager of energy and sustainability for Microsoft, which has a goal of becoming carbon-negative by 2030.
Enchanted Rock was founded in 2006 and focuses on developing microgrids powered by natural gas and RNG offsets. The company operates a fleet of microgrids for its customers, including H-E-B and retirement homes, installing backup generators that can start and stop quickly, expressly for reliability purposes.
Enchanted Rock announced it would open an office in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2019.
More recently, Enchanted Rock announced three new C-suite executives this month. Sanjeev Kumar joined the firm as CFO after previously spending a decade at Houston-based Occidental Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: OXY). Paul Froutan, who previously led Google's global data center operations, joined Enchanted Rock as CTO. Jayesh Goyal joined as Enchanted Rock's chief revenue officer after previously working as senior vice president of sales and marketing for Aggreko, a supplier of rentable power, cooling and heating equipment.
Last year, Enchanted Rock was one of three Houston-area companies selected for Inc. magazine's Best in Business Awards, which recognizes a company's impact on their industry, the environment or society.
