Equinix purchasing 151 MW of renewable energy at Golden Plains Wind Farm –East to accelerate Australian customers’ sustainability journey. The PPA, facilitated by EY and Energetics, is Equinix’s first long-term renewable energy agreement in the Asia-Pacific region.
Highlights/Key Facts
• PPAs are contracts (which can be long-term) between electricity buyers and renewable energy generators like wind and solar farms, and are a high-impact way for data centres to procure renewables and which can support the addition of new renewable energy sources to local markets.
• Equinix started its PPA program in 2015, signing two wind PPAs in Texas and Oklahoma for 225 MW. In late 2021 and early 2022, Equinix signed three PPAs in Finland for a total of 144 MW of new-build wind capacity projects, and in 2023 added 15 new wind and solar PPAs in Europe, including in Sweden, Spain, Portugal and France in excess of 500 MW.
• In addition to this PPA, Equinix continues to explore viable solutions to support the sustainable operations of its facilities across Australia. One recent example was retrofitting heat circulation pumps across all Equinix data centre backup power generators in Australia to provide consistent heating across the generator engine block resulting in greater reliability and overall energy savings.
• The Golden Plains Wind Farm, once completed, will avoid more than 4.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide from being emitted to the atmosphere annually – equivalent to 3% of Victoria’s total greenhouse emissions.
Australia has been a key focus for Equinix to close the procurement gap to reach its global 100% renewable energy goal. Based on current load projections, the Golden Plains Wind Farm is expected to provide the final 4% renewables target by 2030.
According to Equinix Australia’s managing director Guy Danskine this first PPA in Asia-Pacific is a huge milestone for Equinix.
“It underscores our longstanding commitment to actively and meaningfully achieve Equinix’s global sustainability targets to drive positive change and foster a more sustainable future for data centres,”
“Equally as important, we are helping our customers and partners in Australia meet their sustainability goals for their deployments in our IBX data centres across the country,” said Guy Danskine,” said Danskine.
The $3 billion Golden Plains Wind Farm1(GPWF) is a significant project for the State of Victoria and will be Australia’s largest wind farm to date. Situated in Golden Plains Shire approximately 60 km northwest of Geelong, the project will feature 215 turbines with a capacity of approximately 6.2 MW each.
Construction of Golden Plains Wind Farm
Construction of Golden Plains Wind Farm – East is owned by TagEnergy (85%) and Ingka Investments (15%), part of Ingka Group commenced in Q1 2023.
Stage one consists of 122 turbines with an expected annual production of more than 2,000 gigawatt hours (GWh) or 756 MW. Equinix will offtake nearly 20% of the total energy generated by the Golden Plains Wind Farm – East.
When both stages of the 1,330 MW project are completed, the Golden Plains Wind Farm will be capable of producing more than 4,000 GWh of green energy annually. This is equivalent to the energy required to power every home in regional Victoria – more than 765,000 homes.
Andrew Riggs, TagEnergy Managing Partner, Australia said, “TagEnergy welcomes the signing of this significant PPA with Equinix for 20% of the clean energy generated by Golden Plains Wind Farm – East.”
“This is the second PPA for stage one of our mega-project after Snowy Hydro purchased 40% of the energy and green certificates (LGCs) for stage one taking total contracted volume to 60%.
“We look forward to delivering clean energy to support Equinix to achieve its renewables targets as we work to accelerate the energy transition,” he said.
Equinix took a pioneering step in 2015 by committing to achieve 100% renewable energy coverage for its worldwide data center operations. By 2022, the company had achieved an impressive 96% renewable energy coverage on a global scale.
It remains dedicated to enhancing its renewable energy procurement strategies, focusing on investments that contribute to the expansion of renewable resources in the grids where it operates, thereby increasing its overall renewables coverage.
Beyond renewable energy, the company continues to evaluate on-site solar opportunities, on site generation from fuel cells, and other distributed low-carbon technology that fits with its overall global strategy.
Equinix was also the first in the data centre industry to commit to becoming climate neutral, aligned to an approved near-term science-based target for emissions reduction across its global operations and supply chain by 2030.
To date, Equinix has executed 21 PPAs, adding more than one gigawatt of renewable energy across the US, Australia, France, Finland, Portugal, Spain and Sweden once projects are operational through to 2029.” said Diraj Bamola, Senior Vice President, Global Design & Construction for Equinix, responsible for execution of Equinix’s global Renewable Energy Strategy.
“Additionally, we also pioneer green building and design innovations throughout our data centres to do what it takes to address climate change.”
About Equinix
Equinix (Nasdaq: EQIX) is the world’s digital infrastructure company®. Digital leaders harness Equinix’s trusted platform to bring together and interconnect foundational infrastructure at software speed.
Equinix enables organisations to access all the right places, partners and possibilities to scale with agility, speed the launch of digital services, deliver world-class experiences and multiply their value, while supporting their sustainability goals.
About TagEnergy
TagEnergy is a clean energy enterprise creating competitive clean power stations to accelerate the energy transition and help the world reach net-zero carbon emissions sooner.
Since its formation in 2019, TagEnergy has assembled a portfolio of close to 12GW based on solar, wind and battery storage technologies in the UK, Portugal, Spain, France and Australia, of which 1GW is under construction or operation.
About Golden Plains Wind Farm
Golden Plains Wind Farm is a state-significant two-stage project and Australia’s largest wind farm to date. Located in the Shire of Golden Plains, near Geelong, Victoria, the completed wind farm will feature 215 turbines and generate over 4,000 GWh per annum of electricity, powering more than 750,000 homes.
