Digital infrastructure provider Equinix has signed a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) in India with CleanMax, a renewable energy provider in the Commercial and Industrial (C&I) sector backed by Brookfield. The PPA will facilitate construction of a 33 MW Captive Power Plant in Maharashtra, which will comprise 26.4 MWp of solar and 6.6 MW of wind capacity.
Set to launch in phases by 2025, this renewable power initiative will supply sufficient clean energy to meet the demands of Equinix’s data centres in Mumbai. “Equinix decided to enter into a captive arrangement in accordance with the captive rules under the electricity act 2003. This investment will enable Equinix to take advantage of certain grid charge waivers available to captive consumers, resulting in cost savings compared to traditional energy sourcing arrangements,” Kuldeep Jain, Founder and Managing Director at CleanMax told BW Businessworld.
This PPA is Equinix’s first renewable energy project in India, building on the company’s recent agreements in Australia and Singapore signed earlier this year. Globally, Equinix has now executed a total of 23 PPAs, which, once fully operational, are expected to contribute over 3.1 million megawatt hours (MWh) of renewable energy annually across the US, Australia, France, Finland, India, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Singapore.
Although the company declined to share the financial details of the PPA, Manoj Paul, Managing Director at Equinix India, shared that in Chennai, Equinix plans to achieve 100 per cent renewable energy coverage for its upcoming data centre through Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs).
“We will continue to explore different ways to alter the methods of our renewables coverage in Chennai and other markets as we scale our portfolio,” Paul said.
Globally, Equinix has allocated USD 77.5 million to its Energy Efficiency programme in 2023, which reportedly reduced its annual energy consumption by 66,862 MWh and achieved an 8.8 per cent year-over-year (YoY) improvement in Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE), a key metric for data centre energy efficiency.
“Since 2022, Equinix has already achieved 100 per cent renewables coverage in India through. This PPA will improve the quality of its renewables portfolio in India and allow us to deliver digital infrastructure to support our customers and the nation in a more sustainable way,” Paul added.
