Digital Realty Signs Wind Energy Deal to Power Data Centers in Texas

(Photo: The Bearkat II Wind Energy Project in Glasscock County, Texas. Courtesy of Digital Realty and Citi)

Data center, colocation, and interconnection solutions provider Digital Realty signed an agreement to power a portion of its 13 data centers in the greater Dallas area from a wind energy project in Texas.

The new 7.5-year power and renewable energy credit agreement with Citi gives Digital Realty more than 260,000 megawatt-hours of renewable energy annually — an amount representing 55% of the wind generation from the 162-megawatt Bearkat Wind Energy II project in Glasscock County, Texas.

This contract supplies around 30% of Digital Realty’s power needs in its Dallas data center market, the company and Citi said.

Many of the company’s customers want renewable energy from resources like hydro, wind, solar, and biomass to power their data centers, according to Digital Realty. “Both our colocation and interconnectivity business and our EMEA portfolio are now 100% renewable,” they added.

Last year Digital Realty signed a PPA with Engie North America to power data centers in Oregon and Northern Virginia with solar from a 50-megawatt project. The company also inked a green tariff agreement with Portland General Electric for 120,000 megawatt-hours annually for a data center development project in Hillsboro, Oregon.

Renewable energy from the wind project in Texas should be available to customers starting in June 2021, Digital Realty said.

Energy efficiency is also a focus for the company. The US EPA named Digital Realty a 2020 Energy Star Partner of the Year earlier this month for energy efficiency achievements throughout its data center portfolio. In 2019, 30 of their data centers achieved Energy Star certification, the agency noted.r