Why the delay?
That there is a delay is unavoidable as SunEdison do not yet have the capacity to service such demand, switching over that much power means that a new facility will need to be built. It will be located in the territory of San Diego Gas & Electric near Calexico, California, near the US-Mexico border and construction will begin this year with the aim of it being completed in the second half of 2016.
Being so far from the data centres means that some of the power will be lost in transmission. The new project, named Mount Signal Solar II is expected to generate 300,000 MWh per year to offset the Equinix electricity consumption.
It will be interesting to see if it is alone sufficient or whether its actual output at ground zero is higher. With advances in technology though Equinix may already have reduced the power consumption of at least one of its data centres by then as it has a substantial hardware refresh program going on.
What is interesting is that SunEdison are providing Equinix with Green-e certified renewable energy certificates for the twelve months prior to completion. It is surprising that SunEdison has that much capacity in its network readily available.
Paul Gaynor, executive vice president, SunEdison EMEA and Americas commenting in the press release said:“The Mount Signal Solar project is another demonstration of SunEdison’s ability to deliver cost effective renewable energy. Smart companies like Equinix know they can rely on SunEdison to help them save money, meet their sustainability goals, and create valuable jobs in the local community.”
Will it make a difference
The numbers are staggering, once live the Equinix carbon footprint will be reduced by 1,800 million lbs of CO2 annually. This is the equivalent of taking 18,000 passenger cars off the road in the US each year (though not Volkswagon’s!). Equinix has said that it is fully committed to moving its global footprint of 105 data centres to renewable energy and this is a huge step in this project.
This year it has already deployed a 342 kWp PV solar system at its SG3 International Business Exchange™ (IBX®) data center in Singapore and is in the process of installing a 1MW fuel cell system, fueled by bio-gas, at its Silicon Valley (SV5) data center.
(Next: Equinix takes the initiative)
[…] brush proceed identical to Equinix as it looks to go green. Whether they will go as distant as Equinix in their query stays to be seen as a Equinix CO footprint is distant higher. Workday talks about VPPA’s rather than PPA’s nonetheless as in Pleasanton they will cruise […]