Editor’s note: the call for submissions for the 2021 Environment + Energy Leader Awards will be announced next month. Stay tuned for more information. NextEra Energy was a recipient of a 2020 Top Project of the Year Award.]
American enterprise information management services company Iron Mountain collaborated with wholesale electricity supplier NextEra Energy Resources and renewable energy development company Black Bear Energy on a 6.9 MWdc/5.4 MWac solar project. The project, which will be owned and operated by NextEra Energy Resources, should help Iron Mountain reach its goal of sourcing 100% renewable electricity 24/7 from local resources.
Iron Mountain’s clients can benefit from the renewable power through the company’s Green Power Pass program, which launched in February 2019 and gives customers the ability to include the power they consume at any Iron Mountain data center in their CDP, RE100, GRI, and other sustainability reporting. To claim these benefits, data center customers use a protocol established by the Future of Internet Power for the industry. This represents the collaborative efforts of the Renewable Energy Buyers Alliance (REBA) and the Business for Social Responsibility (BSR), NextEra Energy Resources explained.
Iron Mountain worked closely with Black Bear Energy on the sourcing, design and implementation of the project. Black Bear Energy put the project out to bid and presented the bid results from multiple solar developers to Iron Mountain. NextEra Energy Resources, which Iron Mountain selected to develop and implement the project, began construction
just one month after the contract signing.
The 6.9MWdc/5.4MWac NJ project is the largest rooftop solar installation on any data center in the United States, setting the standard for other data centers, NextEra Energy said. The project incorporates the use of bifacial panels, which increase production by allowing light to enter from both sides of the panel, and uses optimizers to increase efficiency. Data centers are critical environments with no tolerance for risk, so the project partners said they collaborated extensively on designing and constructing a large rooftop system during a short timeline that would f ollow data center protocols.
Once complete, the project should enable Iron Mountain’s New Jersey data center to achieve unprecedented levels of solar power during long summer days when cooling loads are highest — and provide a local solution for data center customers participating in the Green Power Pass program, NextEra Energy Resources said. The onsite solar power purchase agreement is part ofIron Mountain’s mission to obtain local, reliable, cost effective, 24/7 renewable energy solutions to meet the company’s RE100 goal of 100% renewable electricity for global operations. When operational, the solar project is expected to generate 9 million kWh per year.
