SoftLayer® Technologies, Inc., the innovative provider of Cloud, Dedicated, and seamlessly integrated environments today announced that it has signed an agreement to purchase renewable energy from Green Mountain Energy Company for SoftLayer’s data centers in Dallas and Houston. Green Mountain is the nation’s leading competitive retail provider of cleaner energy and carbon offset solutions.
Beginning in October 2011, SoftLayer will purchase more than 10 million kilowatt hours (kWh) of Texas wind power to offset 10 percent of the electricity for three of its Dallas data centers and three of its Houston data centers.
SoftLayer is very excited to partner with Green Mountain Energy Company,” said George Karidis, Chief Strategy Officer, SoftLayer Technologies. “As our operations grow and our industry expands overall, we believe it is extremely important to be responsible in how we operate our data centers and keep our environmental footprint as small as possible.”
“Green Mountain applauds SoftLayer for demonstrating leadership in sustainable business practices through this purchase of green power for several of its facilities,” said Scott Hart, President of Commercial Services, Green Mountain Energy Company. “This renewable energy purchase further supports Green Mountain’s mission to change the way power is made and helps SoftLayer demonstrate its stakeholders that it cares about the environment.”
With this purchase of clean energy, SoftLayer will avoid over 12 million pounds of carbon dioxide (CO2) annually. This is the equivalent to not driving over 11.5 million miles or as much as nearly 750,000 trees can absorb in one year.
The renewable energy to supply SoftLayer’s locations will be purchased in the form of Texas wind Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) by Green Mountain. Purchasing over 10 million kWh of RECs in to match 10% of SoftLayer’s electricity consumption ensures that this amount of energy is added to the U.S. power grid from renewable sources and supports the further development of these clean energy projects.”
Source: SoftLayer® Technologies, Inc. and Green Mountain Energy
