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Data centres
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POWER
On the journey to a net-zero world Earth Wind & Power (EW&P) is a Norwegian company that plans to support the siting of power-hungry data centres in places where energy might otherwise be wasted. It announced late last year that it had signed up for several potential projects in Africa. Ingvil Smines Tybring-Gjedde, CEO and co-founder of the company, tells Phil Desmond why this approach is important for both data centres and power.
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W&P’S BUSINESS MODEL is simple: we match the excess energy from one sector/economy to the energy deficit of another. Based upon two megatrends unfolding in the world today – tackling wasted energy as part of the transition to a net-zero world and the ever-growing demand for power associated with digitalisation – we harness the wasted energy from traditional oil and gas fields, as well as from wind, solar and geothermal farms, and use it to power data centres and associated high-performance computing services.” That’s a brief summary of the work of Earth Wind & Power (EW&P), which is taking its business model to the African continent, by its CEO and co-founder, Ingvil Smines TybringGjedde. EW&P’s approach is a described as a way of providing a commercial offtake for energy that would otherwise be wasted, contributing to a reduction in gas flaring and associated methane
Capturing methane that would otherwise be wasted and using it as fuel gas to power data centre applications can have a transformative effect. 18 Communications Africa Issue 1 2022
emissions and helping to incentivise and incubate renewable energy projects, while enhancing digital infrastructure and data security and sovereignty. And speaking of flaring, the company is working on a feasibility study to put data centres on oil platforms. What sort of issues and opportunities does Tybring-Gjedde feel this is likely to address? She explained, “Capturing methane that would otherwise be wasted and using it as fuel gas to power data centre applications can have a transformative effect on the environmental impact of both offshore and onshore oil and gas projects, providing a powerful ESG (environmental, social, and governance) solution for producers.” At the same time, of course, this could be an opportunity to support the ever-increasing demand for energy to power digitalisation as data centres form an increasingly critical and energy-intensive part of our infrastructure. “To put this in context,” she added, “demand growth for electricity to power data centre services is expected to represent as much as 20% of global power use by 2025, up from its current level of just 1%.” It’s not just about otherwise unused gas; solar and wind are another focus. However, wind and sunlight are not always available. How then does the EW&P use of renewables work? Tybring-Gjedde explained, “Each site offers different opportunities and limitations for the type of services that can be developed.
Therefore EW&P engages with renewable power companies to map the conditions, energy availability and data centre operation possibilities.” But that’s not all. “Furthermore,” she said, “redundancy between sites and locations can compensate for limited uptime in wind and solar projects.” It’s also worth mentioning that Earth Wind & Power’s solution supports and incentivises much-needed solar and wind projects. These often struggle to attract investment due to the challenges of intermittent power generation and the cost of building the necessary infrastructure to connect to the grid, often in remote areas. “Offering an immediate off-take without needing any prior connection to the grid provides certainty and cash flow that can act as an incubator for these projects and encourages further investment,” said Tybring-Gjedde. This, however, begs the question of colocation. That is, how the company is able to build a data centre, or any other project requiring power, next to an appropriate or underused power source. “Our infrastructure is modular and mobile, which enables us to position it off-grid, in remote locations and in proximity to the power source as necessary.” It’s also useful for countries keen to keep data relatively close to home. “Being able to position data centre infrastructure in remote locations – which would otherwise not be considered optimal for data centres – enables us to offer data handling sovereignty to governments and institutions
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