Repowering Coal

In the soft glow of a regular Tuesday morning, you reluctantly switch the alarm off, and with bleary eyes, your illuminated face opens to the world. You see the headline: Another climate change story. With a problem so ubiquitous, it can feel meaningless as a single human to move a tsunami.

We’ve all been there, and so has Conor Kelly, a 15-year Microsoft veteran.

But in 2019, Conor had an idea.

Having spent his childhood against the backdrop of a family farm, the delicate relationship between man and earth has always been planted in his mind as he explored the landscape of building a future. When his journey brought him to Microsoft, an unexpected yet familiar responsibility to the land emerged when he saw the proliferation of data centers as our world moves to the cloud. These data centers, which are a vital piece of the support structure, though beneficial in the calming of the frenetic progress of business, relied on power from the local grid and in some cases, the local grid’s main source of power – or the datacenter’s back-up power – came from coal.

He knew something needed to be done. The Microsoft Global Hackathon 2021, the largest private hackathon on the planet, was there to help.

“Coal is 43% of climate change. It’s the single biggest climate change technology opportunity for humanity,” asserted Kelly.
But significant change is not always a solitary activity. As in the raising of a child or a planet, problem-solving takes a village. Reaching out to colleagues and expressing these concerns and potential solutions, Kelly assembled a band of environmentally conscious engineers and creatives to confront this challenge.

The initial step to conquering internal obstacles and getting buy-in required more widespread understanding, and he needed a chorus of like-minded teammates to be heard. Building momentum around sustainability initiatives within global institutions proved challenging in those early days as corporate environmental stewardship had yet to gain pole position in leaders’ minds.
“Corporate environmental sustainability did not formally exist back then,” Kelly recounts of the sprouting thoughts he had 15 years ago.

But their determination could not be extinguished. As Azure cloud grew, they recognized data centers’ potential to become tipping points catalyzing markets toward sustainable energy through innovation.

“When I first saw the ‘Beyond Coal’ project, I was in awe of what they were planning to do,” shared Ed Essey, Director of Business Value in the Microsoft Garage. Essey had coached the team since 2021, the year the project team won 1st place in the Hack for Sustainability executive challenge, backed by Microsoft’s President Brad Smith and then Chief Environmental Officer Lucas Joppa. As the project developed, it was aptly renamed ‘Repowering Coal’ to reflect its growth and maturation.
“Like many great innovations, it did not seem real or possible. However, as I began working with the team, it was clear that they were absolutely committed with a sustainable passion for worldwide impact, along with a sophisticated set of skills.”

A critical breakthrough crystallized as the team studied the impact of coal emissions and coal’s foundational role in providing baseload power for electricity grids built around legacy coal plants. One might think, “why not just replace coal plants with renewable energy?” The team recognized that renewables alone couldn’t realistically replace that reliable backbone for many grids. A more innovative solution was required.

“SMRs (Small modular reactors, a class of small nuclear fission reactors, are designed to power buildings or other commercial operations) are elegant – literally just take out the coal combustion area and put in the reactors to keep the baseload support with a fraction of the emissions,” Kelly explains. Suddenly, a bold vision snapped into focus when catapulted with the forcing function of Hackathon 2021.

However, as Kelly so aptly points out, if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it and the team came to the logical next step: how do we make it easy and low-risk for governments and utilities to understand the opportunity of repowering and decarbonizing their coal power plants, so they can meaningfully progress the projects?

Armed with this revelation, the team built groundbreaking software to visualize and analyze the unprecedented opportunity of repowering the entire global coal plant fleet with emissions-slashing SMRs. They quantified the world-changing impacts and billions in potential annual revenue, arming senior leaders like Microsoft Vice Chair and President, Brad Smith, with bottom-line rationale to encourage companies to change policy and replace existing coal plants with SMRs.

The grand vision faced new obstacles. For example, large capital expenditures loomed, along with years-long licensing horizons that could obliterate swift progress. These policy challenges were daunting, but not insurmountable.

By writing software leveraging generative AI, they pioneered an innovative reference architecture solution that set a precedent for inputting huge volumes of data. Rather than endless committees of subject matter experts toiling over thousands of pages manually, their platform could synthesize all relevant scientific, technical, and policy data into prioritized, comprehensive proposals in a fraction of the time. They believe this software can greatly enhance the productivity of the experts writing permitting applications for repowering projects, allowing fleet-wide repowering projects to be completed more quickly and more cost effectively.

Their powerful solution was put in the spotlight in Egypt in 2022 as Smith supported the platform at COP27, the UN Climate Change Conference, unveiling a visualized roadmap for decarbonizing thousands of plants spanning the planet.

In the summer of 2023 as the team convened the nuclear industry’s best and brightest in Dublin. A palpable electricity coursed through corridors as developers, data scientists, policy experts, and innovators from every Microsoft division rolled up their sleeves along with TerraPraxis, Advanced Nuclear industry players from around the world, and government stakeholders to map their next targets. In attendance were most of the SMR manufacturers from around the world, the US DOE and White House, and stakeholders from large scale manufacturing, finance and regulatory areas.

Applying these technologies is the next step to forging a path to global impact. Kelly and the team, along with partners such as Terra Praxis, have big plans, even recently signing a deal to collaborate on decarbonizing coal.

The coal retooling initiative’s replicable framework could mobilize organizations capable of decarbonizing entire industries. Sustainable mining operations, synthesized fossil fuel-free aviation fuels, even overhauling heavy manufacturing – every challenge is an opportunity for this Hackathon crew. As the team looks ahead, implementing their solutions and charting new epic quests into areas like accelerating permitting for offshore wind, one enduring credo remains steadfast: one seemingly small idea can bring significant change with the right soil.

According to Jeff Ramos, General Manager of the Worldwide Garage, “Through our ten years of running hackathons, we have invested deeply in the culture of innovation. Projects like this both benefit from and contribute to our culture. By that, we have a culture that recognizes the value of a great idea and the belief that great ideas can come from anywhere, and an expectation that small ideas can have a big impact. Through our processes in The Garage, we further help our teams by de-risking the idea through our validation process and create focus through our sponsorship coaching process. And with the tools available through Garage programs like the Microsoft Hackathon, we have created a platform for all Microsoft employees and interns to explore their creative ideas.”

“It’s this type of project that gives people an outlet to use their skills towards working on climate change, which is something that a lot of people feel anxiety about. But you know, projects like this just give people at Microsoft a way to meaningfully contribute to the solution,” Kelly explains.

And you can, too.

“What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” – Mary Oliver

Learn more about how Microsoft employees in The Garage are changing our world every day by bookmarking our site and following The Garage on X and Instagram.