East Africa Data Centre (EADC) Asset Company has finalized a $1.2Million investment in design, installation, and maintenance of commercial and industrial solar systems conducted jointly with Distributed Power Africa (DPA) and Mettle Solar.
EADC is a subsidiary of Liquid Telecom and is Kenya as well as Africa’s first and largest network of an interconnected, carrier, and cloud-neutral data center facilities. It is part of Africa Data Centres, a chain of data centers spread across Africa with hubs in Johannesburg, Kigali, Nairobi and Harare.
DPA AND Mettle Solar’s partnership seeks to provide solutions to industries in Africa looking to meet their technical and financial challenges while investing in renewable energy. The solar plant will enable EADC to significantly lower their overall energy costs whilst at the same time reducing their carbon footprint.
“We are excited to have a DFI-backed company like Mettle, as a co-investor alongside DPA. With sub-Sahara Africa experiencing major power cuts, businesses in Africa are increasingly interested in affordable and reliable energy. We also believe energy to be a fundamental pillar in supporting Africa’s economic development, and this unique partnership is an important building block towards realizing our vision of a digitally connected future that leaves no African behind.” said Norman Moyo, DPA Africa CEO.
DPA is also part of the Econet Global Ltd group controlled by Zimbabwean businessman Strive Masiyiwa. Many parts of Africa struggle with reliable electricity supply, prompting energy-intensive businesses such as data-centre operators to seek alternative sources. DPA also offers batteries made by Tesla Inc, and uses one itself to power the head office in Zimbabwe.
Mettle Solar is a Gridworks investee company, financed by CDC Group plc, the UK’s development finance institution. CDC Group also provided debt funding to the project through a facility made available via CDC Group’s Resource Efficiency Facility.
Francois Van Themaat, Mettle Solar CEO said, “We are very happy and excited to be working with DPA to help reduce the energy costs and carbon footprint of the largest data centre in East Africa. We look forward to building on this partnership and to keep on playing our part to assist businesses across the region with their energy needs.”