Akamai invests in wind energy farm for Clean Powered Internet

Akamai Technologies announced that it has invested in a wind energy farm in reference to its commitment to use renewable energy for 50 percent of its global network operations by 2020.

Akamai intends to source enough energy from the 80-megawatt Seymour Hills Wind Farm to offset its aggregate Texas data center operations, representing approximately seven percent of its global power load. Based outside of Dallas and developed by Infinity Renewables, the project is slated to go online in 2018.

Akamai EVP and CFO, Jim Benson said that Akamai has been seeing a strong trend with customers that value and demand clean-powered, decarbonized services from their supply chains. This project is one of several in which Akamai plans to invest to reach their 50 % goal. Only recently have companies like Akamai with small, distributed loads, relative to big buyers like Apple, Google and Amazon, been able to make a meaningful impact on decarbonizing operations that go beyond purchasing unbundled renewable energy credits. They believe their innovative procurement strategy can be a model for others, and they are excited to help lead the way.

Infinity Renewables VP of Finance and Origination, Matt Langley said that Corporate buyers have become a very important market for the growth of utility-scale renewable energy deployment, having overtaken electric utilities in gigawatts purchased in 2015. They predict that minor energy off-takers, like Akamai, represent the next big wave of corporate buyers, and they are eager to partner with them.