Under the terms of the power purchase agreement (PPA), SunEdison will supply electricity generated from the 150 MWAC solar farm to power Equinix’s California data centers, including 11 facilities located in the Los Angeles and Silicon Valley metro areas, as well as its Redwood City, California global headquarters.
Construction of the solar facility is scheduled to commence in 2015 and is expected to be completed in second half of 2016.
The deal is a part of Equinix’s plan to use 100% clean and renewable energy to power its entire assets of 105 data centers located in 33 markets.
As part of this effort, the company recently installed a 342kWp PV solar system at its SG3 International Business Exchange (IBX) data center in Singapore.
The firm is also installing a 1MW fuel cell system, which is fueled by bio-gas, at its Silicon Valley (SV5) data center.
Equinix expects the Mount Signal Solar II facility, which will generate 300,000 MWh per year, to reduce its carbon footprint by over 180 million lbs of CO2 annually.
SunEdison will also provide Green-e certified renewable energy certificates to Equinix to bridge the supply gap of approximately 12 months from contract execution to project completion.
Equinix Americas president Karl Strohmeyer said: "Equinix’s purpose is to power the digital economy and we believe that it is important to do this in an environmentally sustainable way."
Separately, Equinix also signed on to the principles of World Resources Institute (WRI) and World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Corporate Renewable Energy Buyers. The Principles are used to advocate for increased grid use of renewable energy sources.
The company also joined the Business Renewables Center (BRC) of Rocky Mountain Institute. The BRC is a collaborative platform is intended to accelerating advance renewable energy procurement.
Rocky Mountain Institute managing director Herve Touati said: "The shared goal of our community is to add another 60GW of wind and solar energy by 2030, and we need more companies like Equinix to blaze the trail."
Image: Equinix plans to use 100% renewable energy to power 105 data centers. Photo: courtesy of Equinix, Inc.
