South Wales’ NGD Europe Becomes First Data Centre to Go 100 Per Cent on Renewable Energy

One of the world’s largest data centres, NGD Europe, has become the first in Europe to purchase renewable energy for 100 per cent of its power usage.

As part of its commitment to carbon reduction (CRC), Next Generation Data Limited, the UK owner and operator of South-Wales based NGD Europe has appointed SmartestEnergy, the UK’s largest purchaser of electricity from the independent generation sector, to supply the recently opened state-of-the-art 750,000 square feet date centre facility.

NGD Europe’s tenants, including BT and Logica, will immediately benefit from enhanced environmental credentials for no additional price premium as well as total peace of mind from NGD Europe’s on-site high capacity electricity sub-station which, unlike other data centres, enables connection directly to the National Grid to ensure high availability, resilience and control of power supply from grid to rack.

“Our pioneering renewable energy agreement will directly benefit existing and future NGD Europe customer organisations and demonstrates we are actually doing what other data centres are only just starting to think about. In an industry which consumes over 2 per cent of the UK’s total power supply, it is a significant step to ensuring our operations are as competitive, efficient and environmentally-friendly as possible,” said Nick Razey, CEO of Next Generation Data.

Commented Mark Larard, Director of the Data Centre Advisory Group for global real estate advisors, Jones Lang LaSalle: “Based on our Spring 2010 European Data Centre Barometer1 survey, NGD Europe’s wholehearted and immediate commitment to renewable energy supply is likely to prove to be totally in-tune with industry wishes. In general, the rest of the industry remains in a state of flux over if, when, and how much it is prepared to embrace this critical issue. NGD continues to challenge industry expectations, and it will be interesting to see if others try and follow.”

Commented Martin Balaam, Managing Director of BT Engage IT: “BT is a leading and long-standing advocate of carbon reduction and renewable energy initiatives and is therefore delighted that its managed hosting operation at NGD Europe is now totally supplied from renewable energy sources.”

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