Africa Data Centres has signed a 20-year Power Purchase Agreement with Distributed Power Africa to be supplied with 12MW of renewable solar energy for Africa Data Centres facilities in South Africa through wheeling.
By working together, the two companies are also supporting several of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
Under the terms of the agreement, Distributed Power Africa (DPA) SA will supply 12MW of renewable solar energy for Africa Data Centres facilities in South Africa.
“Through this agreement, our customers will benefit from a sustainable data centre,” said Tesh Durvasula, CEO of Africa Data Centres.
Data centres need reliable, green power
As the demand for data continues to soar, the data centre industry is expanding rapidly, Durvasula explained. “However, while data centres are the foundation of the digital transformation process in Africa, they require reliable, cost-effective and preferably green power to operate. Our partnership with DPA will also help in reducing our reliance on the strained South African national grid, enabling us to play our part in alleviating the current energy challenges facing the country,” he said.
Energy will be delivered to Africa Data Centres’ facilities partly from the solar farm DPA is developing near Bloemfontein to deliver the first 12MW required for the ADC data centres.
Research reveals that the global data centre market was valued at $187.35 billion in 2020 and is projected to reach $517.17 billion by 2030, registering a CAGR of 10.5% from 2021 to 2030. In addition, most estimates claim data centres are responsible for as much as 2% of the world’s energy consumption, which is approximately the same as the aviation industry.
While it cannot be denied that tremendous strides have been made towards carbon neutrality, designing, developing and operating sustainable facilities is still one of the greatest challenges faced by developers, co-location operators, global cloud computing providers and hyperscalers.
According to Durvasula, “each year, the data centre industry must try to accommodate two fundamental goals.”
“Firstly, it must meet the demand for the capacity needed to support the ever-increasing range of high-performance computing, digital services, edge environments and connected devices. Secondly, it must find ways to lower energy usage and reduce its universal impact resources that are already stretched to the limit.”
Supporting sustainable development goals
Africa Data Centres has set itself a target to power all its data centres with clean, zero-carbon sources of energy. “This new deal will provide over 30% of our South African data centres with renewable energy, a great stride forward in our aim to reach carbon neutrality,” Durvasula added.
“By signing this latest PPA, we will reach our second milestone towards carbon neutrality. Our first milestone was to optimise our roof space with solar, and this latest deal will see us utilising the recently approved wheeling mechanism within South Africa’s municipalities.”
DPA is a pan-African renewable energy company with operations in South Africa, Kenya and Zimbabwe. Commenting on the partnership Norman Moyo, CEO of DPA, said, “Our customers are looking for cost-effective and efficient ways of meeting their green targets and reducing energy costs for their businesses in a climate of increased power shortages. We are excited to embark on this milestone project with Africa Data Centres as it will demonstrate our innovation in deploying renewable energy solutions.”
By working together, the two companies are also supporting several of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. To ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all and to make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable. This partnership also creates sustainable consumption and production patterns and, most significantly, takes urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts
