Equinix has signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) in Australia with global clean energy enterprise TagEnergy totalling 151 megawatts (MW).
Once operational in 2029, the PPA will supply enough energy to the grid to cover Equinix’s 17 International Business Exchange (IBX) data centres across Australia and help achieve the company’s global renewable coverage targets.
The PPA, facilitated by EY and Energetics, is Equinix’s first long-term renewable energy agreement in the Asia-Pacific region.
Australia has been a key focus for Equinix to close the procurement gap to reach its global 100% renewable energy goal. Based on current load projections, the Golden Plains Wind Farm is expected to provide the final 4% renewables target by 2030.
“This first PPA in Asia-Pacific is a huge milestone for Equinix. It underscores our longstanding commitment to actively and meaningfully achieve Equinix’s global sustainability targets to drive positive change and foster a more sustainable future for data centres. Equally as important, we are helping our customers and partners in Australia meet their sustainability goals for their deployments in our IBX data centres across the country,” said Guy Danskine, Managing Director, Australia, Equinix.
The $3 billion Golden Plains Wind Farm[1] (GPWF) is a significant project for the State of Victoria and will be Australia’s largest wind farm to date. Situated in Golden Plains Shire approximately 60 km northwest of Geelong, the project will feature 215 turbines with a capacity of approximately 6.2 MW each.
Construction of Golden Plains Wind Farm – East is owned by TagEnergy (85%) and Ingka Investments (15%), part of Ingka Group commenced in Q1 2023. Stage one consists of 122 turbines with an expected annual production of more than 2,000 gigawatt hours (GWh) or 756 MW. Equinix will offtake nearly 20% of the total energy generated by the Golden Plains Wind Farm – East.
When both stages of the 1,330 MW project are completed, the Golden Plains Wind Farm will be capable of producing more than 4,000 GWh of green energy annually. This is equivalent to the energy required to power every home in regional Victoria – more than 765,000 homes.
Andrew Riggs, TagEnergy Managing Partner, Australia said, “TagEnergy welcomes the signing of this significant PPA with Equinix for 20% of the clean energy generated by Golden Plains Wind Farm – East.”
“This is the second PPA for stage one of our mega-project after Snowy Hydro purchased 40% of the energy and green certificates (LGCs) for stage one taking total contracted volume to 60%. We look forward to delivering clean energy to support Equinix to achieve its renewables targets as we work to accelerate the energy transition,” he said.
