Airtel Commissions Solar Plant for its Datacentres in Uttar Pradesh

As part of its mission to rapidly grow its green energy footprint, Bharti Airtel, a digital communications solutions provider, has commissioned a 14 MWp captive solar power plant to meet the energy requirements of its core and edge data centres in Uttar Pradesh.

This is a great opportunity for the channel partners to resell solar panels to similar enterprises wanting to intigrate solar power in their energy requirements.

The facility in Tilhar (Shahjahanpur, U.P.) is the first of the two solar plants being set up by Airtel in partnership with AMP Energy. The second plant at Begampur, is expected to go live in the next quarter. This will provide a major boost to Airtel’s initiatives to reduce its carbon footprint. Airtel had acquired 26% equity stake in AMP Solar Evolution as part of its commitment to green energy-based solutions.

Data centres, which play a key role in the digital ecosystem, have large power requirements. ‘Nxtra by Airtel’ currently operates 10 large and 120 edge data centres across India. During FY 2022, it aims to meet over 50% of its power input through renewable energy sources and contribute to Airtel’s commitment to reducing its carbon footprint.

 “As a responsible corporate, green energy is a top agenda for Airtel. We take pride in being ahead of the curve when it comes to implementing sustainability initiatives. We will continue to accelerate our commitment to reducing our carbon footprint through multiple interventions.”

--Rajesh Tapadia, CEO, Nxtra Data

Airtel is aligned to the Paris Climate Accord. It benchmarks against global standards and transparently publishes the progress it makes against the targets it has set itself. The company is proactively implementing clean fuel-based power solutions for its towers, data centres, switching centers and other facilities. In FY 20, the company has achieved an average Carbon Emission reduction (CO₂ /PB) of ~114% from the base year 2011-12 against Department of Telecom’s target of 30%.

As a consequence of growing climate change concerns, Indian corporate sector is gradually understanding the need to go green. This effort by Airtel is a step in this direction.