CyrusOne data centres in Europe now running on 100 per cent renewable energy

CyrusOne has also pledged to become a carbon-neutral by 2040

Data centre firm REIT CyrusOne announced on Tuesday that all its data centre facilities in Europe are now running on a 100 per cent renewable energy tariff.

The firm said that its entire European portfolio, which includes sites in Amsterdam, Dublin, Frankfurt and London, is now powered by green energy supplied through local suppliers.

"We're extremely proud of this milestone in Europe and pleased to be taking another step towards a greener future and embracing our responsibility to reduce our environmental impact," said Steve Hayward, Senior Director, European Operations at CyrusOne.

"Our progress in sustainability continues to be supported and driven by customers, who have come to expect high-grade, quality local power. As we evaluate new markets, the availability of renewable power will be central to our decision making," he added.

The achievement comes nine years ahead of the 2030 target outlined in the Climate Neutral Data Center Pact, which was co-founded by CyrusOne earlier this year.

The self-regulatory pact includes 25 companies and 17 associations and aims to make Europe climate-neutral by 2050. Some big names who have signed the Pact include Google, AWS, Aruba, TechUK and DigiPlex.

CyrusOne's milestone also comes about two years after the firm announced a 100 per cent renewable energy tariff for its London I and London II data centre facilities. The company said at the time that the move would "transfer energy annual usage equivalent to 52,000 households to zero-emissions sources."

Last year, CyrusOne also pledged to become a carbon-neutral by 2040 by reducing carbon emissions across its global data centre portfolio. The company said that it would try to achieve the goal by using green energy to run data centres, designing energy-efficient buildings and upgrading existing sites.

Earlier this year, CyrusOne also announced that it would purchase 67 MW of renewable energy delivered to the electricity grid generated by Enel Green Power's 284 MW project located in Haskell County, Texas, USA.

Many big technology firms have joined hands in recent years and signed key declarations to combat climate change.

In 2019, Amazon pledged to be 100 per cent powered by renewable energy by 2025 and to become carbon neutral by 2040, a decade before the Paris Accord target for net zero emissions.

Last month, Google also revealed a plan to use its 'Carbon-Intelligent Computing Platform' to shift "movable" compute workloads to different data centres based on availability of renewable energy. The company said that it was working on a plan to completely decarbonise its electricity use for every hour of every day by 2030.

Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai also revealed in April that five of the company's all data centre sites - in Finland, Denmark, Oklahoma, Oregon and Iowa - are now operating near or at 90 per cent carbon-free energy.