New Solar Contracts Come as Digital Realty is Recognized by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Energy for Green Energy Leadership
AUSTIN, Texas, May 12, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Digital Realty (NYSE:DLR, news, filings), the largest global provider of cloud- and carrier-neutral data center, colocation and interconnection solutions, today announced that it is contracting for 158 megawatts (MW) of new solar power in California and Georgia.
The move advances Digital Realty’s progress toward 100% renewable electricity and its 1.5 degree C-aligned Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) – a global standard for reduction greenhouse gas emissions.
“These efforts are part of our strategy to reduce our carbon footprint,” said Digital Realty CEO A. William Stein. “We are demonstrating that the data center industry is a key part of the transition to a digital economy that is powered by clean energy.”
The contracts include a 12-year agreement to support the development of a new 130 MW utility-scale solar project in Kern County, California. The project, developed by Terra-Gen as part of its Edwards Sanborn Solar Storage energy project, is one of the largest solar-plus-storage projects in the world and is expected to be completed in late-2022.
Additionally, Digital Realty is subscribing to Georgia Power’s Customer Renewable Supply Procurement program. The company will receive 28 MW of new solar supply to support its Atlanta data center portfolio. The energy will be generated by new solar facilities located in Georgia. The program is expected to begin delivering power and renewable energy certificates to Digital Realty in 2024.
In 2020, Digital Realty set aggressive science-based carbon emissions targets with the SBTi, becoming the first global data center organization of its size and scale to do so. Digital Realty has committed to reducing its Scope 1 and 2 emissions (direct and indirect emissions) by 68 percent and Scope 3 emissions (indirect emissions in its value chain) by 24 percent by 2030.
The contract announcements come on the heels of a pair of honors for Digital Realty from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Department of Energy (DOE).
For the third consecutive year, Digital Realty received the EPA ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year Award this month, earning Sustained Excellence recognition. The award comes as part of Digital Realty’s continued commitment to measuring and improving the energy efficiency of its data centers and pursuing ENERGY STAR certifications for eligible sites.
Digital Realty certified 34 data centers under the 2021 ENERGY STAR Certification Program, totaling 9 million square feet and 765 MW of IT capacity. This covers 65% of Digital Realty’s U.S. owned and managed portfolio and represents a 15% increase in MW-IT capacity certified from the prior year. Compared to industry-average data centers, Digital Realty’s ENERGY STAR-certified facilities reduce emissions by 408,000 metric tons of CO2 per year and save 943,000 MW of energy, enough to power approximately 79,000 average U.S. homes.
Digital Realty was also recently ranked No. 9 on the EPA’s list of green power users on its Top 30 Tech & Telecom List and No. 21 among companies overall on the National Top 100 List as part of the Green Power Partnership.
Digital Realty uses nearly 1.1 billion kilowatt-hours of green power annually in the U.S. alone, under the EPA’s Green Power Partnership criteria. This is equivalent to the annual electricity use of more than 99,000 average American homes.
- CEO Blog: Digital Realty’s global commitment to reducing its carbon footprint
- Read press release: Interxion targets carbon neutral certification in France by year end
- Read press release: Digital Realty publishes third annual ESG Report
- Read press release: Digital Realty reaches new wind and solar energy agreements to power Texas data centers in 2020 and Interxion France targets carbon neutral certification by year-end 2020
Digital Realty supports the world’s leading enterprises and service providers by delivering the full spectrum of data center, colocation, and interconnection solutions. PlatformDIGITAL®, the company’s global data center platform, provides customers a trusted foundation and proven Pervasive Datacenter Architecture (PDx™) solution methodology for scaling digital business and efficiently managing Data Gravity challenges. Digital Realty’s global data center footprint gives customers access to the connected communities that matter to them with 290+ facilities in 50 metros across 26 countries on six continents. For more information, please visit digitalrealty.com or follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.
ENERGY STAR® is the government-backed symbol for energy efficiency, providing simple, credible, and unbiased information that consumers and businesses rely on to make well-informed decisions. Thousands of industrial, commercial, utility, state, and local organizations—including nearly 40% of the Fortune 500®—partner with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to deliver cost-saving energy efficiency solutions that protect the climate while improving air quality and protecting public health. Since 1992, ENERGY STAR and its partners have helped American families and businesses save 5 trillion kilowatt-hours of electricity, avoid more than $500 billion in energy costs, and achieve 4 billion metric tons of greenhouse gas reductions. Over the lifetime of the program, every dollar EPA has spent on ENERGY STAR resulted in nearly $350 in energy cost savings for American business and households. In 2020 alone, ENERGY STAR and its partners helped Americans save more than 520 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity and avoid $42 billion in energy costs. More background information about ENERGY STAR can be found at energystar.gov.
The Green Power Partnership is a voluntary program that helps increase green power use among U.S. organizations to advance the American market for green power and development of those sources to reduce air pollution and other environmental impacts associated with electricity use. In 2020, the Partnership had more than 700 Partners voluntarily using nearly 70 billion kilowatt-hours of green power annually. Partners include a wide variety of leading organizations such as Fortune 500® companies; small and medium sized businesses; local, state, and federal governments; and colleges and universities. For additional information, please visit www.epa.gov/greenpower.
Media Contacts
Helen Bleasdale
Digital Realty
+1 (737) 267-6822
hcbleasdale@digitalrealty.com
Investor Relations
Jordan Sadler/ Jim Huseby
Digital Realty
+1 415 848 9311
investorrelations@digitalrealty.com
This press release contains forward-looking statements which are based on current expectations, forecasts and assumptions that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual outcomes and results to differ materially, including statements related to our sustainability goals, certifications and strategy and potential impact from sustainability initiatives and our sustainability program and achievements. For a list and description of such risks and uncertainties, see the reports and filings by the company with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
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