New Delhi: Facebook on Thursday announced a deal with Mumbai-based clean energy firm CleanMax for a 32MW wind power project in Karnataka.
As part of the deal — the first of its kind for Facebook in South Asia — CleanMax will own and operate the project, while the social media giant will buy the power off the grid using environmental attribute certificates.
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“This partnership with CleanMax will enable new solar and wind power to be generated in the near future, contributing to the decarbonization of the Indian electrical grid,” said Urvi Parekh, head of renewable energy at Facebook. About half of the project capacity has already been commissioned and is generating power.
Facebook also announced that the company has reached its 100% renewable energy and net zero-emission goals for its global operations. The company has similar partnerships overseas, where it partners with clean energy companies to power its operations around the world. It had announced a virtual power purchase agreement (VPPS) with solar energy company Sunseap Group, in Singapore in October 2020, to power its data centres in Asia. VPPA’s are agreements where companies like Facebook agree to purchase renewable energy from a project at a pre-agreed price.
The social media giant isn’t the only Big Tech firm to promise net zero emissions for its worldwide operations. Companies like Apple, Google and Microsoft have made the same promise as well. In fact, all of Apple’s manufacturing partners joined the company’s drive to become carbon neutral by 2030, the iPhone maker announced last month. This includes Apple’s manufacturers in India, who will be moving to 100% renewable energy for producing Apple’s products. The company’s partners have 8 gigawatts of planned clean energy, which is set to come online by 2030.
