Bharti Airtel commissions greener data centers in India

Bharti Airtel, one of India’s top telcos, announced late last week the commissioning of a 14 MWp captive solar power plant to meet the energy requirements of its core and edge data centers in Uttar Pradesh.

The facility, located in the city of Tilhar east of East of New Delhi, is the first of the two solar plants being set up by Airtel in partnership with AMP Energy. The second plant at Begampur, is expected to go live in the next quarter.

“As a responsible corporate, green energy is a top agenda for Airtel. We take pride in being ahead of the curve when it comes to implementing sustainability initiatives. We will continue to accelerate our commitment to reducing our carbon footprint through multiple interventions,” Rajesh Tapadia, CEO of Nxtra Data said in a statement.

According to the provider, this will provide a major boost to Airtel’s initiatives to reduce its carbon footprint. Airtel had acquired 26 percent equity stake in AMP Solar Evolution as part of its commitment to green energy-based solutions.

Data centers, which play a key role in the digital ecosystem, have large power requirements. ‘Nxtra by Airtel’ currently operates 10 large and 120 edge data centers across India. The telco expects that during FY 2022, the facility will aim to meet over 50 percent of its power input through renewable energy sources and contribute to Airtel’s commitment to reducing its carbon footprint.

Airtel is aligned to the Paris Climate Accord, as it benchmarks against global standards and transparently publishes the progress it makes against the targets it has set itself, the statement by the provider noted.

The company is proactively implementing clean fuel-based power solutions for its towers, data centers, switching centers and other facilities. “In FY 20, the company has achieved an average Carbon Emission reduction (CO2 /PB) of ~114 percent from the base year 2011-12 against Department of Telecom’s target of 30 percent,” Bharti Airtel further explained. 

However, Airtel is not the only company in India taking a step forward toward greener infrastructure. Back in February 2021, Adani Enterprises and EdgeConneX announced a 50:50 joint venture to build out what they call India’s “leading green data center platform.”

While in late March, data center provider ST Telemedia Global Data Centers’ India unit announced a new partnership with Indian cleantech company Avaada Energy to procure renewable energy.