Nxtra by Airtel to Become the First Data Center Company in India

Bharti Airtel has announced that its subsidiary Nxtra Data Limited has partnered with Bloom Energy to deploy low environmental impact fuel cell installation at its data center in Karnataka, reducing carbon emissions through a cleaner, hydrogen ready fuel supply.

Nxtra will be the first data center company in India to deploy fuel cell technology to reduce carbon emissions at its data centers while unlocking cost and sustainability benefits.

Nxtra plans to start the unit on non-combusted natural gas and then switch to 50% hydrogen in future without any significant investment. The natural gas-powered cells will be used for primary generation with utility electrical grid and generators as backup sources.

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Speaking about the partnership, Mr. Rajesh Tapadia, COO, Nxtra by Airtel said, “Nxtra is committed to set new benchmarks in sustainability for the data center industry and play a leading role as India emerges as leading data center destination in APAC. With an ambition to reach net zero by 2031, we have embarked on our sustainability journey by making all possible efforts to adopt innovative energy solutions. Our partnership with Bloom Energy is a testament to our future-ready energy strategy to supply much cleaner energy to our data centers.

“Bloom Energy’s technology is distinctly capable of helping India meet its decarbonization objectives as it transitions to a hydrogen economy,” said Tim Schweikert, senior managing director, international business development, Bloom Energy. “We are proud to collaborate with Nxtra to support them in their pursuit of using clean, reliable and affordable power for their data centers.”

Nxtra by Airtel has the largest network of data centers in India with 12 large and 120 edge data centers across the country and will invest over Rs 5000 cr over the next four years to expand its capacity by 3X to over 400 MW. The company has already invested and partnered with 8 organisations to develop renewable energy power plants across India to source more than 180,000 MWh of renewable energy and is committed to achieving 50% of its power requirements through renewable energy sources in the next 12 months.

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About Airtel: Headquartered in India, Airtel is a global communications solutions provider with over 490 Mn customers in 17 countries across South Asia and Africa. The company ranks amongst the top three mobile operators globally and its networks cover over two billion people. Airtel is India’s largest integrated communications solutions provider and the second largest mobile operator in Africa. Airtel’s retail portfolio includes high speed 4G/4.5G mobile broadband, Airtel Xstream Fiber that promises speeds up to 1 Gbps with convergence across linear and on-demand entertainment, streaming services spanning music and video, digital payments and financial services. For enterprise customers, Airtel offers a gamut of solutions that includes secure connectivity, cloud and data centre services, cyber security, IoT, Ad Tech and cloud based communication.

Nxtra by Airtel, a subsidiary of Bharti Airtel Limited, offers largest network of secure, scalable, and sustainable data centres in India to leading enterprises, hyperscalers, start-ups, SMEs and governments. Being associated with both data centre and telecom industry for more than 2 decades, we provide a platform of hyper connected state-of-the art core and edge data centres across 120+ locations. We enable businesses to accelerate their digital journey and host their applications closer to their customers than ever before. Backed by one of the world’s largest investment firm ‘Carlyle Group’ and already investing in multiple large data centre parks, we’re committed to be a long term partner to support the journeys of our customer’s to scale and create a digital future.

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