Orange And Engie Team Up To Shift African Data Centre To Solar Power

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Orange
Orange And Engie Team Up To Shift African Data Centre To Solar Power

The GOS (Groupement Orange Services) data centre, one of Orange’s key infrastructure assets on the African continent, is set to receive a green makeover courtesy of Engie

Built back in 2016 and situated in Grand Bassam, Côte d’Ivoire, the GOS (Groupement Orange Services) data centre is a major component in Orange’s broader data centre network throughout Africa. The site covers 16,600 square metres and hosts IT and telecoms equipment to support all 18 of Orange’s Middle East and Africa subsidiaries.
Naturally, data centres such as this consume a lot of energy, making them far from the greenest of operations. However, a new deal with Orange and energy company Engie could see a significant part of the facility’s carbon footprint reduced in the coming years.
Orange signed an Energy-as-a-Service deal was signed with Engie in December 2021, whereby Engie agreed to convert the GOS to solar power by installing a solar plant on rooftops, as well as solar carports.
The rooftop solar plant will be reportedly comprise 784 photovoltaic cells, providing the data centre with 527 MWh per year of renewable energy. The data centre will use the power generated from these solar cells directly, with the daily energy produced likely to amount to around 60% of its total day-time consumption.

Orange And Engie Team Up To Shift African Data Centre To Solar Power

In total, the GOS new solar infrastructure should provide a peak capacity of 355 kWp.
Orange points out that this green transformation is not only in line with their own Group goals of becoming carbon neutral by 2040 but is also consistent with the environmental plans laid out by the Government of the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire, which aims to increase the share of renewable energy in the region’s overall electricity mix to 48% by 2030.
“This project is a first in West Africa for Orange in terms of its size and scope and it perfectly illustrates our ambition to speed up our solar projects in order to achieve net zero carbon by 2040,” said Alioune Ndiaye, Chairman and CEO of Orange Middle East and Africa. “In the rest of Africa and the Middle East we have already implemented several initiatives, as equipping 5,400 telecoms sites by solar panels and building solar farms in Jordan and Mali. We intend to go further.”
Commissioning for the project is scheduled to begin in the second half of 2022.