EDF JV breaks ground on solar project for S African data centre firm

South African data centre services provider Africa Data Centres announced today it has held a groundbreaking ceremony for a solar farm project in the Free State province that is intended to supply its CPT1 facility in Cape Town.

The project is being developed in collaboration with DPA Southern Africa, a joint company of French utility EDF and Distributed Power Africa. It is backed by a 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA) between Africa Data Centres and DPA SA that was signed in March 2023.

"Today's announcement represents a significant stride in our initiative to energise South African data centres sustainably, advancing our objective of achieving carbon neutrality. The first phase involves constructing the 12 MW solar infrastructure to power our Cape Town data centre, with subsequent phases extending to our Johannesburg data centres,” commented Tesh Durvasula, CEO of Africa Data Centres, a business of the Cassava Technologies group.

The plan is for the second phase of the project to power the JHB1 and JHB2 facilities, subject to signing wheeling agreements with relevant municipalities.

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