A renewable, modular data centre from Peth company DC Two is now operating at biogas company LMS Energy’s Victorian facility.
The facility is the ASX-listed DC Two’s “first 100 percent renewable energy site” and draws power from LMS Energy’s biogas site, which generates energy from landfill waste.
DC Two is touting the facility as a source of renewable, low-cost power for organisations wanting to decrease operational costs and attain ESG credentials. It is one of two data centres on the biogas site, the other owned by LMS Energy.
Its modular data centres are based on ISO-standard sea containers and non-ruggedised insulated variants, and are marketed as suitable for high performance or supercomputing workloads.
DC Two’s target customers for its modular datacentre hosting solutions include bitcoin and cryptocurrency miners.
In 2018, DC Two signed a similar agreement with renewable energy provider Hadouken to build a data centre in its solar farm in Collie, 200km south of Perth.
“Our Victoria and Mid-West data centres are expected to provide a stable, predictable revenue stream for the Company and are now a proven, first of its kind concept in Australia,” DC Two managing director Blake Burton stated.
“These two regional data centres will very shortly be generating almost two times more revenue per year, than the company made in the financial year 2021.”
The Victorian facility has an initial capacity of 800kw but DC Two said it would increase to 1.2MW as the company “seeks an agreement to access and sell space in LMS Energy’s module.”
“The current contract has sold approximately 763kw of power for DC Two’s module, with all customer equipment in the process of being installed and commissioned over the coming weeks,” the company said.
Investment in renewable data centres
Late last year, CRN sister site Digital Nation Australia reported estimates that data centres were responsible for approximately two per cent of the world’s carbon emissions. Regulation is increasing in the space, adding to the pressure to reduce the huge level of emissions for which data centres are responsible.
Australia’s Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water notes that while “major IT companies are taking responsibility for the energy impacts of data centres through energy efficient design….the average Australian data centre is now over 20 years old and many are inefficiently designed.”
In July this year, green energy infrastructure investment firm Quinbrook announced plans to build a $2.5 billion Queensland data centre powered by renewable energy.
The company said it had secured permission to build a multi-tenant campus of up to four hyperscale data centres in a 30-hectare site next to the South Pine substation at Brendale, which is 30 kms from Brisbane CBD.
It also applied for permission to build a 2,000 MWh Battery Energy Storage System at the facility, which Quinbrook stated would help power the renewable energy-fueled “Supernode” project.
“Quinbrook plans to procure, self-develop and construct the renewables supply capacity needed by Supernode customers as their energy demands grow,” the company stated.
In February Green Industries South Australia boss Ian Overton spoke about looking forward to helping NextDC make its planned $100 million Adelaide data centre “a leading example of sustainability in action, adopting circular economy principles to reduce waste, use recycled content and reduce carbon emissions.”
In May, AWS' local boss said that two of Amazon Australia’s three renewable energy projects across the country - solar farms in Gunnedah and Suntop in New South Wales, and a wind farm in Hawksdale, Victoria – were operational.
-1.jpg&w=100&c=1&s=0)
.png&w=100&c=1&s=0)
.jpg&h=237&w=349&c=1&s=1)
