New Delhi, Sep 12 : Bharti Airtel on Monday announced that its subsidiary Nxtra Data Limited has partnered with Bloom Energy to deploy low-impact fuel cell installation at its data center in Karnataka and reduce carbon emissions with a more sustainable hydrogen-ready fuel supply.Nxtra will be the very first data center firm in India to utilize fuel cell technology in order to reduce carbon emissions from its data centres, while gaining costs and sustainability benefits.
“Nxtra is determined to establish new standards in the sustainability of the industry of data centres and to play an integral role in the process in the coming years as India is emerging as the leading data centre hub in APAC,” Rajesh Tapadia COO of Nxtra by Airtel said in an announcement.
“With the goal of becoming net-zero by 2031, we’ve embarked on our journey towards sustainability by putting all effort to implement innovative energy solutions.
Our collaboration with Bloom Energy is a testimony to our energy strategy that is future-proof to provide more sustainable power to our data centers,” Tapadia added.
Nxtra plans to begin the unit with natural gas that isn’t burned and change to 50 percent hydrogen in the future , without significant investment.
The natural gas-powered units will be used as primary generation with an electrical grid for utility use and generators to provide backup sources.
“Bloom Energy’s technology is capable of aiding India reach its decarbonisation goals as it moves towards a hydrogen-based economy.” stated Tim Schweikert who is the senior managing director for international business developmentat Bloom Energy.
Nxtra by Airtel is the most extensive network of data centers in India with 12 big and 120 edge data centers across the country.The company will invest more than Rs.5 million over the next 4 years to increase capacity by 3x to more than 400 MW.
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