The 'Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0' provider is not registered on the local machine. (System.Data)

When trying to load an excel spread sheet into SQL Server you may be presented with the below error.

This occurs because the Office System Driver and Data Connectivity Components are not installed on the server and SQL Server is unable to interact with the MS Office document. For the SQL Server to interact, open and load the data from excel spreadsheet, it requires the Office System Driver and Data Connectivity Components to be installed.

To fix this issue, download and install the Office System Driver and Data Connectivity Components from the below link.
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=23734

This will install a set of components that can be used to facilitate transfer of data between Microsoft Office System files and non-Microsoft Office applications.