Bharti Airtel has just announced the commissioning of a 21 MW solar power plant in Bhuldana, a district in Maharashtra. This announcement falls in line with the company’s commitment to progressively reduce carbon footprint and contribute to the global efforts for curbing the effects of climate change. Airtel partnered with Avaada to set up this captive unit which is spread over 80 acres of land. This solar power unit will supply clean energy to Nxtra by Airtel’s edge and large data centres along with switching centres in the state. With this move, the telco expects a reduction of 25,517 tonnes in carbon emission annually, just from this power unit.
Nxtra by Airtel Moving Towards Goal of Sourcing More than 50% Power Through Clean Sources
Rajesh Tapadia, CEO, Nxtra by Airtel, said that this announcement is a significant step for the company towards sourcing more than 50% of its energy requirements for data centres through renewable energy sources in the next 12 months. It will also contribute to Airtel’s overall GHG emission reduction targets. This is not the first solar power plan of Nxtra. In the state of Uttar Pradesh, Nxtra by Airtel has already commissioned two captive solar power units of 14 MW each. The company has the largest data centre network in India, with 120 edge data centres and 11 large data centres. Nxtra by Airtel has already promised over Rs 5,000 crore investments for expanding the data centre capacity by 3x in the next four years. Bharti Airtel has committed to reducing scope 1 and scope 2 Green House Gas (GHG) emissions across its operations by 50.2% by FY2031, taking FY21 as the base year. During the same time frame, the company has promised to commit itself towards reducing the scope 3 GHG emission by 42%. The company is already investing in and partnering with green energy companies to ensure that it stays on course with its goals.
