Digital Realty, a global provider of cloud- and carrier-neutral data center, colocation, and interconnection solutions, has announced that it has signed energy supply contracts that will enable it to achieve 100 per cent renewable energy coverage across some of its data centers in facilities located in the United States starting January 1, 2024. These include facilities in Texas and New Jersey, after making significant achievements along these lines at a California facility.
In a statement released to the press, the company said, “In Texas, Digital Realty will transition to 100 percent renewable energy by adjusting its power supply contracts, supporting its Texas load in the Dallas, Houston, and Austin markets with regionally sourced renewables. The renewable energy coverage in Texas will be provided predominantly by a portfolio of wind and solar power purchase agreements (PPAs), supplemented by locally sourced renewable energy credits (RECs).”
Elaborating on plans for New Jersey it said, “New Jersey will utilize 100 per cent renewable energy beginning on January 1, 2024. In conjunction with RECs from Digital Realty’s portfolio of operational PPAs, the company has increased the renewable capacity within its retail energy supply contracts, leveraging wind resources located in Pennsylvania, near its facilities in New Jersey.
In California, Digital Realty’s 200 Paul Ave facility in San Francisco achieved 100 per cent renewable energy coverage in October 2023. The facility receives renewable energy directly from the local utility supplier, ensuring a sustainable power source for its operations.
“We understand the importance of aligning economic growth with our sustainability programs and remain dedicated to supporting our customers’ clean energy needs as they grow and scale,” said Aaron Binkley, VP Sustainability at Digital Realty. “These new contracts bring us another step closer to achieving our Science-Based Targets Initiative (SBTI) goals.”
Renewable Energy journey of US Data Center Industry
According to the International Energey Agency (IEA), an organisation that works with government and industry on sustainability energy goals, “Since 2010, emissions from data have grown only modestly despite rapidly growing demand for digital services, thanks to energy efficiency improvements, renewable energy purchases by information and communications technology (ICT) companies and broader decarbonisation of electricity grids in many regions. However, to get on track with the Net Zero Scenario, emissions must drop by half by 2030.”
In fact, many organisations are actively working towards sustainability goals and investments by the government as well as private sector into green energy initiatives are only growing. In December 2023, National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) joined a US$ 40 Million program led by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) to radically rethink how components within data centers are cooled.
In a statement, the company said, “Among the 15 ARPA-E projects selected, NREL has been named as the lead on one research project and is supporting three additional projects within the ARPA-E Cooling Operations Optimized for Leaps in Energy, Reliability, and Carbon Hyperefficiency for Information Processing Systems (COOLERCHIPS) program.” It further said, “These efforts will lower the operational carbon footprint associated with this critical infrastructure and support ambitious clean energy goals to reach net-zero carbon by 2050.”