Monday 24 August 2020

Vattenfall joins Alliance seeking to move digital sector towards net zero

Swedish energy company Vattenfall has joined an Alliance that is aiming to move the global digital sector towards net zero emissions.

It has signed up to the Sustainable Digital Infrastructure Alliance (SDIA), a non-profit founded in 2019 that aligns energy suppliers, governments and industry to help decarbonise the global digital economy.

Max Schulze, SDIA's Board Chairman said: "We welcome Vattenfall not only as a new member to the Alliance but also as one of the first energy companies to put the decarbonisation of the digital infrastructure sector on their agenda.

"Data centres are major energy consumers and energy utilities, such as Vattenfall, bring the knowledge and experience to integrate them effectively as part of the future energy system."

He adds residual heat from data centres could become a significant heat sources for households and light industries.

Sjur Jensen, Vice President within Vattenfall Business Area Markets said: "It also represents an important step for us to offer our expertise and collaboration towards achieving a more sustainable digital infrastructure sector.

"We see that data centres are growing and digital infrastructure is increasing in importance. As with other large-scale industries, there is the potential for a deeper integration, be it residual heat, flexibility, power purchase agreements or other synergies. With our support in the SDIA and our pilot facility near Stockholm, we want to facilitate such an integration along the entire value chain."

The SDAI currently has more than 20 members, with organisations including Carbon IT, Renewable Energy Hamburg, Cloud & Heat and SysEleven.