They will supply Equinix with 80% of the green energy and guarantees of origin to be produced by their future Lumivaara wind farm (pictured), which will have a total capacity of at least 53MW.
Sami Holopainen, managing director for Finland at Equinix, said: “Finland is fast becoming a world leader in environmental sustainability and at Equinix we are proud to play a significant role in that story.”
Construction of the Lumivaara wind farm is scheduled to begin in 2023, with commissioning to follow in early 2025. The power purchase agreement (PPA) with Equinix will run for 10 years and is partially indexed to market prices.
Holopainen said: “I’m delighted to sign our second power purchase agreement with Neoen and Prokon, quickly following the agreement we executed in December last year to take more than 30MW from their Björkliden wind farm. By bringing our total renewables purchasing to over 75MW in Finland, Equinix is once again leading the way in its support of the renewables industry, reaffirming its commitment to more sustainable power generation, and taking yet another significant step towards accomplishing our pledge to become climate neutral globally by 2030.”
Lumivaara will be Neoen’s fourth wind farm in Finland, which will take the company’s capacity in the country to around 600MW. Prokon is a large renewable energy cooperative.
Equinix will use the energy for in all five of its International Business Exchange (IBX) data centres in Finland.
Under agreement, Equinix will purchase 80% of the green energy and guarantees of origin to be produced by the new wind farm, in the municipality of Hyrynsalmi, in the central region of Kainuu.
Equinix says it is the first data centre company in the world to set a 100% renewable energy target, achieving 95% renewable energy globally in 2021.
Equinix also expanded the scope of its climate commitments in 2021 to include both a validated science-based target and a goal to reach climate neutrality across its operations by 2030.
This latest renewable energy PPA brings Equinix’s total capacity under long term contract globally to 297MW.
Henning von Stechow, CEO of Prokon Regenerative Energies, the German parent company of Prokon, said: “The successful PPA in partnership with Neoen is further proof that renewable energy projects are competitive, even without government subsidies.”
