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Equinix Inc., a global interconnection and data center company, has signed power purchase agreements with an affiliate of NextEra Energy Resources and Invenergy LLC to buy a total of 225MW of wind power in Oklahoma and Texas, respectively, for its data centers throughout North America. With the additional capacities that are expected to commence in late 2016, all Equinix’s data centers in the U.S. will be operated by renewable energy resources.
On one hand, the agreement with a NexEra Energy Resources affiliate includes the purchase of wind energy from the Rush Springs Renewable Generation Facility located in Grady and Stephens Counties, Oklahoma. The agreement will provide 125 MW of capacity resulting in approximately 556,000MWh of clean and renewable energy generated annually in Oklahoma and delivered into the Southwest Power Pool (SPP) regional electricity grid.
On the other hand, the agreement with Invenergy includes the purchase of wind energy from the 100MW Wake Wind Energy Facility located in Floyd and Crosby Counties, Texas. Approximately 457,000 MWhs of clean and renewable energy are expected to be generated annually in Texas and delivered into the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) regional electricity grid.
In September 2015, Equinix announced a PPA of purchasing solar power from a 105MWac SunEdison project in California. All these PPAs follow after Equinix’s commitment conducted earlier in 2015 to run each of its 105 data centers in the world by renewable resources. The commitment involves in development, investment and partnerships with relevant technologies.
"As a global data center leader, with more than 100 facilities across 33 global markets, we truly understand the importance of operating our business in an environmentally sustainable way,” said Karl Strohmeyer, president, Equinix Americas. “These projects announced today are two significant milestones toward our commitment of reaching 100% renewable power across all of our data centers across the globe, and further solidify Equinix's position as a leader in data center sustainability."
In advance to signing the PPAs, the company had deployed a 342 kWp PV solar system at its SG3 International Business Exchange™ (IBX®) data center in Singapore and is in the process of installing a 1MW fuel cell system at its Silicon Valley (SV5) data center. The global use of renewable energies will increase from 43% to 82% after the latest two wind facilities are fully deployed.
(Photo Credit: Equinix's blog)