ReNew Power signs pact with RackBank for renewable energy for data centre

ReNew Power said it has signed a memorandum of understanding with RackBank Datacenters Ltd to power the country's first hyper-scale data centre with 100 per cent renewable energy.

RackBank is a data centre platform providing services like dedicated servers, managed servers and colocation services, among others.

ReNew will supply power generated from renewable sources to RackBank's hyper-scale data centre in India after a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) is signed with RackBank, it said in a statement.

As laid out in the MoU, ReNew will construct, co-own, and operate a hybrid power generation facility specifically to supply power to RackBank's data centre.

RackBank would purchase green power generated from this facility directly from ReNew, through the 'Open Access' mechanism.

The MoU also provides for offsetting of non-renewable power consumed by RackBank's data centre through green credits purchased from ReNew, ensuring that the data centre operates on a completely net-zero emissions basis.

This project will be carried out and managed by ReNew Green Solutions, ReNew Power's business-to-business arm, and will lead to the creation of India's first green data centre, it said.

The RackBank data centre is spread out over 35,000 sq ft with a capacity of 800 racks and growing.

Sumant Sinha, founder, chairman and CEO of ReNew Power, said, "MoU between ReNew Green Solutions and RackBank reflects the commitment that responsible corporates are showing to shift towards cleaner energy sources to power their businesses."

"ReNew Power has been a pioneer in the renewable energy space and it has always been our endeavour to support firms looking to reduce their carbon footprint," he added.

Narendra Sen, CEO of RackBank Datacenters Limited, said, "This initiative is one of the major check posts for RackBank's vision of a sustainable future, along with the several other green initiatives previously taken by our company."

"RackBank Hyperscale platform will enable 100 per cent clean energy for our data center and through this partnership, we should be able to reduce our power cost by 30 per cent compared to power consumption directly from the grid," he added.

ReNew is India's leading renewable energy independent power producer (IPP) by capacity and the 10th largest global renewable IPP by operational capacity.