Facebook to power Fort Worth data center entirely with clean energy

Facebook_Data_Center

Operations of the upcoming Fort Worth data center of Facebook will be entirely powered by renewable energy.

The social media giant, in collaboration with local energy companies, has already made arrangements necessary to bring 200-megawatts of renewable wind power to the Texas grid.

However, Facebook hasn’t disclosed the power requirement of the data center and has also not identified any other renewable energy source.

The wind farm is located about 145 km from the data center on 17,000 acres in Clay County, Texas. And the facility produces about half the power produced by a typical coal plant.

The Fort Worth project will be the fifth privately owned data center of Facebook, and the second to be powered entirely by renewable energy. The cost of construction of the plant is expected to cross $1 billion. Facebook has told Los Angeles Times that it has saved $2 billion through the switchover to clean energy over the past three years.

Google has already agreed to invest more than $2 billion in clean-energy projects, aiming to eventually use only renewable energy sources.

David Pomerantz, a senior climate and energy campaigner for Greenpeace has told Nick Shively of Los Angeles Times that companies, particularly in the IT sector, that want to sustainably power their operations are switching to 100 percent renewable energy benchmark. “Companies that are really innovative we are seeing embrace this 100 percent renewable energy goal.”

Ajith Kumar S

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