Energy & Sustainability

MTN Nigeria’s margins reportedly face a potential US$87.5 million hit as diesel prices rise, a situation that may have been exacerbated by the war in Iran, although the removal of fuel subsidies in 2023 has also played a part.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) announced on Sunday it will back two new initiatives priced at US$70 billion total to connect power grids, expand cross-border electricity trade and improve broadband access across Asia and the Pacific.

ST Telemedia Global Data Centres (STT GDC) Philippines has agreed a 40MW renewable supply deal with MPower, a unit of private sector electric distribution utility Manila Electric Company (Meralco) to supply power for its Philippines data centre operations.

Despite regular news stories in these pages highlighting the use of renewable energy in telecoms, reliance on diesel still appears to be widespread – which may explain why pan-African operator Vodacom Group has just released a new white paper entitled Decarbonising Africa’s ICT Sector.

Huawei and Jazz, Veon Group’s telco subsidiary in Pakistan, announced on Friday that they have deployed solar power systems across 1,000 base station sites nationwide, with a total installed capacity of 13 MW.

State-owned Ethio Telecom announced on Friday it held discussions with Italian firm Ascot Energy with the goal of integrating green energy technologies into the telco’s national digital infrastructure across Ethiopia.

Telekom Malaysia (TM) and state utility company Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) announced on Monday they have signed an MoU to develop green energy solutions for more sustainable and interconnected energy and telecoms infrastructure across Malaysia.

Mirova, a global asset management company dedicated to sustainable investing, has announced a US$15 million senior secured facility for iSAT Africa Mauritius Limited, a leading rural connectivity platform, to support the deployment of fully solar-powered mobile towers in Liberia and Zambia.

Philippine telco PLDT and its wireless arm Smart said on Friday it's doubling down on measures to lessen operational reliance on fossil fuels in light of the impact of the Middle East on global oil prices.

Cambodian telco Metfone announced on Thursday it has expanded into the sustainable energy solutions space with the launch of its smart solar power system for households and businesses.

Global data centre solutions provider Equinix has announced a renewable energy deal in Brazil with Auren Energia, an energy generator in the country that claims 100% renewable production. The contract is scheduled to begin this year.

The GSMA launched a new innovation fund on Monday to support small enterprises that use mobile and digital technologies to transition to green practices in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).

Finnfund, the Finnish development financier and impact investor, says it has made a follow-on investment in a company called Communication & Renewable Energy Infrastructure (CREI) to scale up sustainable telecom energy infrastructure in South Sudan.

In an interesting example of an operator taking its sustainability message right into the public marketplace, service provider Hutch Sri Lanka has launched the first in what it promises will be a number of sustainability-led retail outlets.

Could the olive-growing industry be of benefit to data centre development? That’s a question that a new biomass-powered data centre planned in Croatia may be able to answer.

Recent data centre news from the Middle East and North Africa includes announcements from the UAE and Tunisia that, as so often recently, focus on energy efficiency.

NTT Global Data Centres (NTT GDC), part of NTT Data, and the world's third-largest data centre provider, has signed a 100MW power purchase agreement with Thai Energy company B.Grimm Power, through its Amata B.Grimm Power division, securing capacity for its upcoming Bangkok 4 Data Centre.

Two very different approaches to powering data centres are making headlines in Dubai and Kazakhstan: one, which has been under way for some time, is solar-focused, the other, very much on the drawing board, may use coal.

Casa dos Ventos, one of Brazil's largest renewable energy developers, has signed a long-term power supply agreement to provide renewable electricity to Ascenty, one of Latin America’s largest data centre operators.

Ooredoo, Qatar’s leading ICT provider, and the Gulf Organisation for Research & Development (GORD), a research group with a strong emphasis on sustainability, have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU).

Underlining the continuing government push not only to make Malaysia an attractive home for data centres but for renewable energy to power those data stations is a recent announcement of a 250MW solar initiative positioned to supply AI data centres in Malaysia.

Veon-owned digital telco Kyivstar says it has made first investment in renewable energy by buying solar power company Sunvin 11, which owns a 12.9-MW solar plant in the Zhytomyr region of Ukraine.

Two new renewable energy agreements involving Malaysia are a reminder of the growing power demands of data centres and of date centre owners’ need to find cleaner, cheaper and more demand-responsive ways to meet them.

Edotco Bangladesh, an integrated telecommunications infrastructure services provider, has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Telephone Shilpa Sangstha (TSS), a state-owned enterprise under the country's Posts and Telecommunications Division.

Reported last week but only recently receiving wider coverage is the news that a Brazilian company – Rio de Janeiro-based Sollar Machine – has announced an investment of about US$9 million to build a data centre in Paraguay that will operate independently of the national power grid.

Operator MTN Zambia and tech company Huawei have jointly launched what is claimed to be the world’s first AI-powered adaptive power backup solution for emergency resilient networks.

Bahrain-headquartered technology group Beyon has announced the establishment of its second fully green solar-powered data centre with the successful completion of Phase 3 of the Beyon Solar Park developed in partnership with solar solutions company Almoayyed Solar.

Two MoUs announced in the past week underline the ongoing focus of many major corporations in telecommunications and energy supply on pursuing – or being seen to pursue – sustainable strategies, notably in the area of energy efficiency.

A new investigative report claims to document ways in which a group of large US brokers appear to be facilitating what is estimated to be a billion-dollar trade in exporting electronic waste to developing countries.

AdventEnergy, the retail electricity supply arm of Aboitiz Power Corporation, a power company in the Philippines that champions the use of both renewable and non-renewable energy sources, has entered into a strategic partnership with Philippines telecommunications company DITO Telecommunity by providing electricity to 1,642 of its cell towers.

Botswana and Nigeria are in the data centre news after recent announcements signalling plans to develop facilities in both countries powered, in part, by renewable energy.