Teraco's JB2 data center in Johannesburg is equipped with rooftop solar panels.
As South Africa's power crisis continues, vendor-neutral data center provider Teraco has secured its first grid capacity allocation from Eskom to build a 120MW utility-scale solar photovoltaic energy facility in South Africa's Free State province. is scheduled to start.
In an interview with ITWeb yesterday, Teraco CEO Jan Hnizdo said the company plans to spend about R2 billion to complete the solar project.
He expects the solar farm to be operational within 18 months.
South African organizations are increasingly turning to alternative energy sources as state-run electricity company Eskom continues its battle for energy supplies.
For many years, Eskom has implemented load shedding that has had a significant impact on business operations and the South African economy.
Mining and telecommunications companies, in particular, are leading the charge to pull out of troubled Eskom, which currently provides more than 90% of South Africa's electricity, mainly from coal-fired power plants.
To alleviate the challenge of power outages, Teraco was spending “millions” of rands a month on diesel for generators to power its data centres, Hnizdo said.
“For the past two years, we have had 100% availability, but the grid availability has been around 15% and at some sites around 20%. So we have to supplement that with diesel, which requires a huge amount of It's costly. I'd say it costs millions of rands a month. It's a huge cost to us,” he says.
Teraco said in a statement that the grid capacity allocation from Eskom will enable the data center provider to connect its planned 120MW solar farm to the national electricity grid.
The electricity generated will be routed through Eskom and municipal power networks to Teraco's facilities across South Africa.
The announcement comes as Teraco expands its data center footprint in South Africa. The company currently has a critical power load capacity of 186MW, including Isando Campuses JB1/JB3/JB5 (70MW), Bredell Campuses JB2/JB4 (64MW), Cape Town Campuses CT1/CT2 (50MW), and Durban (2MW). We are proud of .
Teraco CEO Jan Hunizd.
“This allocation is an important step in meeting our and our clients’ renewable energy ambitions. This is just the first step in our long-term renewable energy commitment. We have come a long way over the last few years to get this approval, and now our goal is to quickly implement this opportunity,” says Hunizd.
“Despite South Africa's various energy challenges, this presents an exciting opportunity to meet short-term renewable energy targets while adding capacity to a constrained grid.
“This is a unique approach in Africa as Teraco not only owns its own data center facilities, but also significant renewable energy sources to power them, creating a sustainable energy pathway to support growth. This initiative is in line with Teraco's long-term vision to drive digital transformation across Africa. “South Africa's solar resources are a source of competitive advantage for data centers compared to other locations,” he added.
Once fully operational, the 120MW solar power plant is expected to generate more than 338,000MWh of electricity annually, according to Teraco.
“This solar project represents an important part of our plan to achieve our 100% clean energy goal,” said Bryce Allan, Teraco's head of sustainability.
“In addition to this project, Terraco has installed approximately 6MW of rooftop solar power integrated into its facilities over the past two years, and this amount is expected to increase to 10MW as the new facility comes online.”
As part of the construction design, Teraco's facilities are constructed to maximize solar power potential.
Hnizdo also told ITWeb that the company will also consider partnering with independent wind energy producers to power its data centers in the future.
Juwi, subsolar partnership
Teraco partnered with Juwi Renewable Energies South Africa and Subsolar to develop the 120MW solar power plant, with Juwi appointed to design and manage procurement, construction and commissioning.
In a first for Teraco, a green loan has been raised to finance the construction of the power plant, the company said, noting that selecting the right partner is critical to realizing Teraco's renewable energy strategy and vision. He added that there is.
By transmitting renewable energy across the grid, renewable energy producers in remote locations can provide power to end users in urban areas via existing transmission and distribution systems.
It will also allow renewable energy projects to be deployed in areas with high energy yields to maximize the potential for renewable energy generation.