DataBank Achieves Renewable Energy Milestone

DALLAS, Aug. 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- DataBank, a leading provider of enterprise-class colocation, connectivity, and managed services, announces today that it has reached the 100 percent renewable energy mark at one of its Minneapolis, MN, data centers, MSP2. The milestone was reached by entering into an agreement with utility provider Dakota Electric Association to purchase 100% renewable energy to meet all of MSP2's 6MW of critical IT load for the next five years. The renewable power is being provided through Dakota Electric's Wellspring program, which will procure the power from clean wind sources provided by Great River Energy.

DataBank had already begun preparing to offset a majority of MSP2's power requirements when it was approached by its largest customer in the data center, a F1000 enterprise software company. As part of its own CSR initiative, the customer had the goal of reducing its environmental impact across the company, and asked DataBank if it was possible to use renewable sources for all its power consumption in MSP2. DataBank then made the decision to purchase enough green power from Dakota Electric to cover 100% of MSP2's needs. Now that customer, and all other MSP2 customers, will be powered by 100% renewable wind energy.

For DataBank, this represents the third such milestone – as both of its IND1 and IND2 data centers in Indianapolis are powered by 100% renewable energy sources – and fits into DataBank's larger commitment to reducing its carbon footprint and reducing environmental impact across its facilities.

Last year, U.S. based data centers used more than 90 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity, representing up to three percent of all U.S. electricity consumed, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.  The collaboration between DataBank and Dakota Electric reduces the carbon footprint of a significant data center in the Minneapolis market. 

"Green energy and sustainability are critical aspects of DataBank's Data Center Evolved™ strategy," states Kevin Ooley, DataBank's President and CFO. "This milestone reached at our Minneapolis data center is a major step toward enhanced energy efficiency across DataBank's portfolio and a further example of how we enhance the data center experience for our customers."

"Data centers need tremendous amounts of reliable and cost-effective electricity to power their servers, storage equipment, back-ups and power cooling infrastructure," said Greg Miller, Dakota Electric's president and CEO. "We're excited to have DataBank in our Wellspring program and look forward to providing them with 100% renewable energy to meet their green initiative goals."

About DataBank

DataBank is a leading provider of enterprise-class data center, cloud, and interconnection services, offering customers 100% uptime availability of data, applications, and infrastructure. DataBank's managed data center services are anchored in world-class facilities. Our customized technology solutions are designed to help customers effectively manage risk, improve their technology performance, and allow them to focus on their core business objectives. DataBank is headquartered in the historic former Federal Reserve Bank Building, in downtown Dallas, TX. For additional information on DataBank locations and services, please visit www.databank.com or call 1(800) 840-7533.

SOURCE DataBank