A partnership has just been signed between DPA Southern Africa (DPA SA) and Africa Data Centre (ADAC). The agreement covers the supply of 12 MW of solar photovoltaic energy to power Adac's data centres in South Africa.
Africa Data Centre (ADAC) wants to reduce the carbon footprint of its data centres in South Africa. To this end, the Johannesburg-based company has signed a 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with DPA Southern Africa (DPA SA), a joint venture between renewable energy provider Distributed Power Africa (DPA) and the Electricité de France (EDF) group.
Under the agreement, DPA SA will supply 12 MW of solar photovoltaic power to ADAC’s data centres in South Africa. DPA SA is building the power plant near Bloemfontein, 397 km from Johannesburg. ADAC, which will purchase its production, operates a network of data centres in several African cities. In Cape Town, South Africa, the company headed by Tesh Durvasula operates 1,800 square metres of storage space with a capacity of 5.5 MW.
An alternative to load shedding
The company plans to expand the capacity of this data centre to 25 MW, covering an area of 6,000 square metres. Adac also operates data centres in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, Lagos, the economic capital of Nigeria, Harare in Zimbabwe and Kigali in Rwanda.
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“If data centres are the foundation of the digital transformation process in Africa, they need reliable, cost-effective and preferably green energy to operate. Our partnership with DPA will also help us to reduce our dependence on the South African national grid, which will allow us to help alleviate the energy challenges currently facing the country,” says Tesh Durvasula.
The urgent need to decarbonise data centres
The agreement signed with DPA is part of Adac’s strategy to make its data centres in Africa carbon neutral. “This new agreement will enable over 30% of our South African data centres to be powered by renewable energy, which is a major step forward in our goal to become carbon neutral,” says Adac’s managing director. The decarbonisation of this growing sector is all the more important as data centres consume 2% of the world’s electricity.
These facilities are also responsible for 2% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Yet, a study reveals that the global data centre market was valued at $187.35 billion in 2020 and is expected to reach $517.17 billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 10.5% between 2021 and 2030.
Jean Marie Takouleu
