Global data centre and infrastructure company Equinix and renewable energy developer wpd have signed seven 20-year Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) that will provide more than 100MW in capacity, and more than 300GWh per year of renewable energy output in France.
The Power Purchase Agreement, which is one of the largest of its kind signed in France, was facilitated by Schneider Electric and includes four wind projects in Nouvelle-Aquitaine, two in Hauts-de-France and one wind farm in Pays de la Loire. The agreement will see long term financial support to help further the deployment of renewable energy in France and make a major contribution in decarbonising the grid.
The deal is Equinix’s twentieth Power Purchase Agreement globally, adding to an overall contracted capacity of 912 MW across the US, France, Finland, Spain, Portugal and Sweden and the company continues significantly ramping up its investment in renewable energy across the globe.
The pressure for data centres to accelerate decarbonisation has never been stronger even as AI threatens to explode energy usage globally. Eco-conscious investors and corporate clients of data centres are all demanding lower emissions.
In the EU, with the Energy Efficiency Directive (EED) and Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) coming into force (the latter requires c.50,000 companies to report their direct and indirect emissions from 2024 onwards), data centres (with an installed IT power demand of at least 100 kilowatts) will need to provide detailed public reports of their energy usage and performance. The EU Taxonomy also includes a reference to the European Code of Conduct on Data Centre Energy Efficiency. According to ING Research based on Bloomberg New Energy Finance, Equinix is among the largest corporate purchasers of renewable energy – only behind Meta, Google and Amazon in the tech space.
Highly impactful
PPA solutions such as these are highly impactful tools for achieving sustainability targets for companies and demonstrate the maturity of PPAs in France. For wpd, the PPAs allows it to diversify their financing options for wind power projects being developed. This deal also represents a major step forward for wpd France specifically, augmenting its position as a major player in the French and European PPA market. Wpd already has extensive expertise in this field, signing its first PPA with global industrial leaders back in 2013.
“We are proud to sign one of the biggest PPAs in French history, marking a significant milestone in France and underscoring Equinix’s global dedication to investing in renewable energy solutions,” said Equinix France managing director Régis Castagné. “Through aligning with France’s own renewable energy production goals, we’re delighted to be positively and proactively contributing to the nation’s decarbonisation and renewable investments.”
“Deals of this value in France are rare and Equinix’s long-term commitment to power purchase agreements in seven locations demonstrates its belief that the expansion of innovative digital infrastructure must go hand in hand with reducing our impact on the planet,” said Schneider Electric Global cleantech and renewables VP John Powers.
The contracts will come into force in 2025 at latest – supporting renewable energy in France up to the year 2045. The Guarantees of Origin (GOs) generated from the project will be allocated to Equinix’s locations in all eleven of the company’s data centres in France.
Equinix said it was the first in the data centre industry to commit to becoming climate neutral, aligned to an approved short-term science-based target, for emissions reduction across its global operations and supply chain by 2030. It is also a founding signatory of the EU Climate Neutral Data Centre Operator Pact, which is leading advocacy and steering the development of sustainability requirements for the EU data centre industry to become climate neutral by 2030.
