The world is still dependent on fossil fuels. This is because renewable Energy sources tend to fluctuate.

Unlike coal or gas, solar and wind energy depend heavily on the weather.

And not only that, the supply needs to be on the exact amount of energy that people are demanding. No more, no less.

So, while they’ve become cleaner and cheaper alternatives to fossil fuels, researchers need to come with batteries that can store energy for the grid that can be tapped any time it’s needed. That’s where Microsoft thinks its data centers can step in.

To help, Microsoft wants to use its battery storage at its datacenters, to provide grid flexibility services. The company wants to do this, when its batteries aren't being used as backup power.

The company's Lithium-ion batteries have been certified, tested and approved for grid connection, Microsoft staffer John Roach said.

According to a blog post, Microsoft wants its batteries to be used in Dublin, Ireland.

Microsoft is certain because its battery storage is an uninterruptible power system (UPS) that is also “grid-interactive”.

It all started when Microsoft commissioned advisory firm Baringa to evaluate the opportunities to decarbonize its Irish datacenters with the grid-interactive UPS technology.

According to Baringa’s study, the attempt should be able to displace fossil fuel use as well as providing system services in the DS3 grid-balancing markets of transmission operator EirGrid.

It would also mean a higher utilization of renewable energy on the grid that would otherwise be lost.

With Ireland experiencing an increase in data center buildings, EirGrid forecasted in 2019 that they could be responsible for 29% of all electricity demand in the country within 10 years.

At this time, Ireland is targeting to meet 70% of its electricity demand with renewable energy by the end of the decade.

According to Baringa, replacing fossil fuels at datacenter operations could lead to a 2 million metric ton decrease in CO₂) emissions by 2025. This is equivalent to a fifth of Ireland’s entire power sector emissions.

Batteries are playing a key role in DS3, which has a market structure EriGrid implemented to accommodate storage, Microsoft can help Ireland achieve that goal.

And here, Microsoft could help prevent outages, instead of only responding to outages.

Previously, Microsoft had tested a way to connect datacenters to the grid in Chicago, Illinois, and Quincy, Washington.

Microsoft partnered with power management group Eaton with this project, and the two have deployed proof-of-concept models for the attempt.

But Ireland is a more ideal place for Microsoft to roll out the idea commercially, since the region relies more on wind for its electricity than nearly any other country in the world.

As a matter of fact, around 35% of Ireland's electricity comes from wind farms, and this number "is extremely high," said Belady.

"And so that makes sense to be the first place to start."

Microsoft isn’t publicly detailing how much energy its Dublin batteries can provide.

But what's certain, data centers typically use "tens of megawatts of power," according to Christian Belady, vice president of the Datacenter Advanced Development group at Microsoft.

For comparison, one megawatt generated by a power plant can power between one hundred to about a thousand homes. And also for comparison, wind farms can produce 100 megawatts or energy during peak winds.