Teraco turns to solar to power data centres

Teraco, part of Digital Realty and a provider of interconnection platforms and vendor-neutral colocation data centres, has started construction on a 120MW utility-scale solar PV power plant in South Africa's Free State province

Teraco will own this 120MW solar PV facility and transfer its renewable energy to power its data centres, marking a step toward establishing a self-sustaining energy source for next-generation cloud and AI computing needs. The plant is set to be operational by late 2026.

“Driving renewable energy infrastructure investment at a time when computing applications such as artificial intelligence are using increased power is an industry imperative. The need is even more acute in South Africa, given its electricity generation constraints and current levels of renewable energy penetration. This is a significant step toward meeting our renewable energy ambitions and those of our clients. It is also only the first phase of our longer-term renewable energy commitment, with the construction commencement marking an important milestone in what has been a long journey over the last several years, and we are now looking forward to driving the project to completion,”commented Jan Hnizdo, CEO at Teraco.

"In South Africa, we have various energy challenges, and this presents an incredible opportunity to support the needs of our broader community through the addition of generation capacity to our constrained grid, while meeting Teraco’s near term renewable energy objectives. This represents a unique holistic approach since Teraco plans to not only own its data centres, but also to power them with a renewable energy source, creating a sustainable path to growth. This initiative aligns with Teraco’s long-term vision of powering digital transformation across Africa. South Africa’s solar power represents a competitive advantage for data centres relative to other locations,” continued Hnizdo.

Power to remote locations

In February, Teraco secured grid capacity allocation from Eskom for the solar plant and has since worked to finalise the plant's design and the wheeling arrangements between Eskom and the municipalities of Ekurhuleni and Cape Town, where several Teraco data centres are located.

Wheeling renewable energy across power grids allows energy generated in remote locations to reach end-users in urban areas by utilising existing transmission systems, enabling renewable energy projects to be deployed in high-yield areas for optimal generation. This project, with wheeling across multiple municipalities, is a first for South Africa's renewable energy sector.

Bryce Allan, Teraco's head of sustainability, explained, “Teraco considers this project essential to achieving its renewable energy ambitions and believes it will pave the way for other municipality renewable energy wheeling projects. This will ultimately assist municipalities in attracting new investments and remaining competitive as local and international companies become increasingly sensitive to the carbon intensity of their electricity supply.”