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UTSA & Microsoft Strike Partnership In Energy Research

Joey Palacios
/
Texas Public Radio
UTSA students and Microsoft staff pose for a group photo.

The University of Texas at San Antonio and Microsoft have joined in a partnership to construct renewable energy for its data centers.

The UTSA band lead the fanfare in the announcement for the partnership with global computer giant Microsoft. The goal between the two is to develop new methods of creating sustainable energy.

“The important thing is to not just gather power but to measure power and measure how the building uses its power and to find ways how about how find ways in which we can reduce the use of power,” said Ricardo Romo, president of UTSA.

Brian Janous is the director of energy strategy at Microsoft and said UTSA was chosen due to it, and the city, being conducive to this type of research. Microsoft already has a 400,000 sq. ft. data center in San Antonio and is expanding it by 250,000 sq. ft.

“What we’re looking at is next generation of energy technology focused specifically on power generation and how we can generate electricity for the data center more cost effectively, more efficiently, using less resources; ultimately more sustainably,” Janous said.

UTSA, like many institutions in the city, is already embracing renewables on its buildings. The Texas Sustainable Energy Research Institute at UTSA will be overseeing the projects. The school was also awarded a separate $1 million from Microsoft in grants to pay for the research.

Joey Palacios can be reached atJoey@TPR.org and on Twitter at @Joeycules