Solar panels being installed on the roofs of dozens of schools throughout Dublin, Ireland, reflect a novel front in the fight against global climate change, according to a senior software engineer and a sustainability lead at Microsoft.

The technology company partnered with SSE Airtricity, Ireland’s largest provider of 100% green energy and a part of FTSE listed SSE Group, to install and manage the internet-connected solar panels, which are connected via Azure IoT to Microsoft Azure, a cloud computing platform.

The software tools aggregate and analyze real-time data on energy generated by the solar panels, demonstrating a mechanism for Microsoft and other corporations to achieve sustainability goals and reduce the carbon footprint of the electric power grid.

“We need to decarbonize the global economy to avoid catastrophic climate change,” said Conor Kelly, the software engineer who is leading the distributed solar energy project for Microsoft Azure IoT. “The first thing we can do, and the easiest thing we can do, is focus on electricity.”