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Business Reporter

AFRICA Data Centres, a business unit of the Cassava Technologies group, has announced the signing of a 20-year Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with DPA Southern Africa Ltd, a joint company of Distributed Power Africa and the French utility, EDF.

Under the agreement, DPA Southern Africa will supply 12MW of renewable solar energy for Africa Data Centres facilities in South Africa.

“Through this agreement, our customers will benefit from a sustainable data centre,” says Tesh Durvasula, CEO of Africa Data Centres, the largest network of interconnected data centre facilities in Africa.

As demand for data continues to soar, the data centre industry is expanding rapidly, which demands more sustainable power supplies, he explains.

“While data centres are the foundation of the digital transformation process in Africa, they require reliable, cost-effective, and preferably green power to operate.

“Our partnership with DPA helps in reducing our reliance on the strained South African national grid, enabling us to play our part in alleviating the current energy challenges facing the country.”

Energy will be delivered to Africa Data Centres’ facilities partly from the solar farm DPA is developing near Bloemfontein to deliver the first 12MW required for the ADC data centres.

DPA is a pan-African renewable energy company with key operations in South Africa, Kenya, and Zimbabwe whose vision is to power Africa to a brighter future.

Commenting on the partnership, DPA CEO, Norman Moyo, said: “Our customers are looking for cost-effective and efficient ways of meeting their green targets and reduce energy costs for their businesses in a climate of increased power shortages.

“We are excited to embark on this milestone project with Africa Data Centres, as it will demonstrate our innovation in deploying renewable energy solutions.”

Through the creation of a 50:50 Joint Venture between DPA and EDF in South Africa via DPA Southern Africa Ltd, EDF intends to develop hybrid energy solutions for clients across Africa.

Valérie Levkov, senior vice president for Africa and Middle East at EDF said: “This agreement with Africa Data Centres re-affirms EDF’s commitment to providing low-carbon solutions for commercial and industrial clients in Africa, and we are very pleased to be a part of this initiative.”

Research indicates global data centre market was valued at US$187.35 billion in 2020 and is projected to reach US$517.17 billion by 2030, registering a CAGR of 10.5 percent from 2021 to 2030.

Estimates also suggest that data centres are responsible for as much as two percent of the world‘s energy consumption, which is approximately the same as the aviation industry.

While strides have been made towards carbon neutrality, designing, developing, and operating sustainable facilities is still one of the greatest challenges faced by developers, co-location operators, global cloud computing providers, and hyperscalers.

Africa Data Centres itself has a target to power all its data centres with clean, zero-carbon sources of energy.