F E A T U R E

Ed Ansett, Founder and Chairman, i3 Solutions Group

Africa inevitably raises concerns about their environmental impact. Globally there is a need for the industry to take a more sustainable approach to minimise its carbon footprint and new builds in Africa present a sustainability opportunity which must not be wasted. Simply building as before and then fighting to get grid energy by relying on Africa ' s power generation mix that is heavily reliant on traditional sources such as coal, oil, and natural gas is not viable. from market research group Arizton, found US $ 2.6 billion was invested in the market in 2021. It is expected that US $ 5.4 billion will be invested by 2027, at a compound annual growth rate of 12.73 % over five years.

Digital Realty( bought Teraco in 2022), Equinix( US $ 320 million acquisition of

Intelligent Technologies’ 10MW data centre in Lagos, Nigeria. Africa Data Centres’ new facility in Accra, Ghana with an initial capacity of 10MW, and the potential to expand to 30MW is the largest data centre facility in West Africa outside Nigeria. Raxio Data Centres has secured a‘ sustainability-linked’ US $ 170 million loan from a consortium

Crucial for the industry is developers choosing to move away from conservative design approaches and adopting more sustainable practices. Only through the use of energy-efficient technologies run off renewable energy dominant microgrids can data centres expect to significantly reduce their emissions profiles.

In short, the question is whether the industry is willing to leapfrog itself to adopting new sustainable designs, technologies, energy sources and practices.

Demand drivers

Power and connectivity can mean different things in different markets of Africa.

MainOne in December 2021 to expand in Ghana, the Ivory Coast and Nigeria) and Vantage( US $ 1 billion invested with plans for more) have all made significant market moves in South Africa and are pushing into new territories across the continent.

At the same time, local players are emerging. Typical projects include Liquid of investors, who include French development finance institution Proparco, Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund( EAIF) and investment manager Ninety-One. Raxio aims to accelerate the expansion of its facilities in seven African markets.

However, the growth of data centre facilities in both size and number across

Of Africa’ s 1.2 billion population, roughly half, 600 million people don’ t have a dependable networked electricity supply. In Sub-Saharan Africa, two-thirds of people have no regular access to electricity.

This is being changed through the development of off-grid power systems. Much of this off-grid solar power is largely

www. intelligentdatacentres. com 47