Co-ops help DataBank achieve renewable energy milestone

Co-ops help DataBank achieve renewable energy milestone Main Photo

13 Oct 2020


Data Center, Dakota Electric Association

With the help of Dakota Electric Association and Great River Energy, a local data center is powered entirely by renewable energy.

DataBank, a leading provider of enterprise-class colocation, connectivity and managed services, announced the milestone was achieved at MSP2, a data center located in Eagan, Minnesota.

DataBank entered into an agreement with utility provider Dakota Electric Association, one of Great River Energy’s member-owner cooperatives, to purchase 100% renewable energy to meet all of MSP2’s 6 megawatts of critical IT load for the next five years. The renewable power is provided through Dakota Electric’s Wellspring program, which will procure the power from clean wind sources provided by Great River Energy.

Wellspring provides businesses with an easy, affordable and meaningful way to support sustainable energy efforts. Companies can offset their conventional energy use and take pride in helping promote—and expand—renewable energy development.

DataBank already started to offset a majority of MSP2’s power requirements when it was approached by its largest customer in the data center. As part of its own corporate social responsibility initiative, the customer had a goal of reducing its environmental impact and asked DataBank if it was possible to use renewable sources for all its power consumption in MSP2. DataBank then made the decision to purchase enough green power from Dakota Electric to cover 100% of MSP2’s needs. Now that customer, and all other MSP2 customers, will be powered by 100% renewable wind energy.

For DataBank, this represents the third such milestone—as both of its IND1 and IND2 data centers in Indianapolis are powered by 100% renewable energy sources—and fits into DataBank’s larger commitment to reducing its carbon footprint and reducing environmental impact across its facilities.

Last year, U.S. data centers used more than 90 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity, representing up to 3% of all U.S. electricity consumed, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. The collaboration between DataBank and Dakota Electric reduces the carbon footprint of a significant data center in the Minneapolis market.

“Green energy and sustainability are critical aspects of DataBank’s Data Center Evolved™ strategy,” said Kevin Ooley, DataBank’s President and CFO. “This milestone reached at our Minneapolis data center is a major step toward enhanced energy efficiency across DataBank’s portfolio and a further example of how we enhance the data center experience for our customers.”

“Data centers need tremendous amounts of reliable and cost-effective electricity to power their servers, storage equipment, back-ups and power cooling infrastructure,” said Greg Miller, Dakota Electric’s president and CEO. “We’re excited to have DataBank in our Wellspring program and look forward to providing them with 100% renewable energy to meet their green initiative goals.”

Contact Tom Lambrecht, economic development services manager at Great River Energy, if your business is interested in enrolling in the Wellspring program.