The tie up aims to reduce carbon emissions through a cleaner, hydrogen ready fuel supply.

Nxtra claims to be the first data center company in India to deploy fuel cell technology to reduce carbon emissions at its data centres while unlocking cost and sustainability benefits.

 

Nxtra plans to start the unit on non-combusted natural gas and then switch to 50% hydrogen in future without any significant investment.

The natural gas-powered cells will be used for primary generation with utility electrical grid and generators as backup sources.

Rajesh Tapadia, COO, Nxtra by Airtel, said Nxtra is committed to set new benchmarks in sustainability and play a leading role as India emerges as leading data centre destination in APAC.
He said, “With an ambition to reach net zero by 2031, we have embarked on our sustainability journey by making all possible efforts to adopt innovative energy solutions. Our partnership with Bloom Energy is a testament to our future-ready energy strategy to supply much cleaner energy to our data centres.
Tim Schweikert, Senior Managing Director, International business development, Bloom Energy, said its technology is distinctly capable of helping India meet its decarbonisation objectives as it transitions to a hydrogen economy.
Its Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (SOFC) have been deployed in many applications, including healthcare, critical manufacturing and retail.
Nxtra by Airtel has the largest network of data centres in India with 12 large and 120 edge data centers across the country and will invest over Rs5000 cr over the next four years to expand its capacity by three times to over 400MW.
The company has already invested and partnered with eight organisations to develop renewable energy power plants across India to source more than 180,000 MWh of renewable energy and is committed to achieving 50% of its power requirements through renewable energy sources in the next 12 months.
Headquartered in India, Airtel is a global communications solutions provider with over 490m customers in 17 countries across South Asia and Africa. It is the largest integrated communications solutions provider and second largest mobile operator in Africa.