After successfully executing Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) over the past decade in the U.S. and Europe, Equinix, the world’s digital infrastructure company, has executed a new PPA in Australia. The announcement signals a broader industry goal of bringing additional clean power to a region where conditions have traditionally been more challenging for executing renewable energy projects.
“Data center operators and other large corporate energy customers, like Equinix, have accelerated the clean energy transition by executing PPAs and other contracts that create long-term financial stability for developers of wind, solar and other clean energy resources. These clean energy projects have changed the electricity market in the U.S. and Europe. Now high-impact projects like this are helping to lead the effort to drive local demand and shift markets in regions where there is even more opportunity for decarbonization such as Australia, India and Southeast Asia,” said Kevin Hagen, Interim CEO of the Clean Energy Buyers Association (CEBA).
The new PPA in Australia is with TagEnergy and includes the purchase of 151 megawatts (MW) of renewable energy that is expected to come online at the provider’s Golden Plains Wind Farm – East project in 2029. The agreement is Equinix’s first long-term renewable energy agreement in the Asia-Pacific region.
PPAs are financial contracts that bring to market renewable energy projects, such as wind and solar farms, which increase access to clean energy in local energy grids. They are typically contracts whereby consumers of electricity, such as Equinix, agree to purchase from a renewable generator at a fixed price over the duration of a multi-year contract. With a guaranteed price paid to wind and solar farm generators over the life of the agreement, PPAs can provide financial certainty to facilitate the construction and operations of renewable energy projects.
“To date, Equinix has executed 21 PPAs globally resulting in 3,000,000 MWh of renewable energy and as we expand our global data center footprint, we will continue to assess opportunities for greening the grids that we move into,” said Christopher Wellise, Vice President, Sustainability. “Once this expansion of the Golden Plains Wind Farm – East project is completed in 2029, our impact through all 21 PPAs is expected to amount to more than one gigawatt of renewable energy added to local grids. In combination with other sustainability efforts, this is expected to bring Equinix to 100% renewable coverage across all of our operations globally.”
Highlights/Key Facts
- Equinix was the first in the data center industry to commit to becoming climate neutral, aligned to an approved near-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 center industry to become climate neutral by 2030.
- Equinix began its PPA program in 2015, signing two wind PPAs in Texas and Oklahoma for 225 MW. In late 2021 and early 2022, Equinix signed three PPAs in Finland for a total of 144 MW of new-build wind capacity projects, and in 2023, added 15 new wind and solar PPAs in Europe, including in Sweden, Spain, Portugal and France in excess of 500 MW.
- Equinix’s sustainability initiatives across Scope 1-3 support its customers’ GHG reporting and compliance goals.
