Energy & Sustainability

Digital Edge announces renewables deal for major data centre

Digital Edge announces renewables deal for major data centre

Digital Edge, a data centre developer and operator with a strong presence in the Asia-Pacific market, has agreed a partnership with Philippines-based renewable energy provider First Gen to power one of its data centres.

First Gen will directly supply electricity to support the operations of the NARRA 1 data centre, located inside the Laguna Technopark in Biñan, a city in the province of Laguna, southeast of Metro Manila.

First Gen will source the power from the Pantabangan-Masiway and Casecnan hydro-electric complex in Nueva Ecija in the Central Luzon region, which is in the northern portion of the Philippine archipelago.

Digital Edge Philippines Country Manager Vic Barrios explains: “By design, NARRA1 is already one of the most energy and water-efficient data centres in the region. Through our partnership with First Gen it will now also be powered by renewable hydroelectricity.”

NARRA1 is a 10MW data centre developed through a joint venture between Digital Edge and the Threadborne Group, a Philippine-based family office with interests in technology and real estate. The facility offers 2,200 cabinets across 12 data halls, with 5,200 square metres of colocation space. 

The First Gen renewable energy portfolio includes close to 300 MW of hydro power generation, as well as 160 MW from wind and solar facilities and close to 1,200 MW of geothermal generating capacity from subsidiary Energy Development Corporation. In addition to renewables, First Gen has four other facilities powered by natural gas to compensate for the intermittence of renewables.

The Data Centre Dynamics website says that Digital Edge, established in early 2020, owns and operates 21 data centres with more than 500MW of capacity either in service or in development, with another 300MW held for future development, across strategic locations in Japan, Korea, India, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines.

Digital Edge is a portfolio company of Stonepeak, a leading alternative investment firm, which has itself played a direct part in supporting the energy needs of Digital Edge.

Indeed, in June 2024 Digital Edge signed a 500MW renewable energy partnership with Stonepeak-owned company Peak Energy to “pursue renewable energy production projects designed to power Digital Edge data centres across the APAC region”.



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