A coalition of companies led by Equinix Australia has received the green light from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) to establish a joint renewable energy purchasing group.
The ACCC ruled that the companies HSBC Bank, Nike, Goldman Sachs, H&M and Equinix, will be able to pool their demand and collectively tender and negotiate a power purchasing agreement with a single supplier. The agreement will be in the form of a contract for differences, also known as a hedge, for electricity and for the physical delivery of green products, including large-scale generation certificates, from a renewable energy generation facility connected or to be connected to the National Electricity Market (NEM).
“We are delighted with the ACCC’s approval, which is an important milestone that will help us work towards our recently announced commitment to becoming climate neutral globally by 2030, meeting our science-based target aligned to the Paris Agreement 1.5 degree scenario and reaching our long-term goal of 100 per cent clean and renewable energy,” Guy Danskine, managing director of Equinix Australia, said. “As the first data centre company to issue a 100 per cent renewable energy goal back in 2015, we have been actively considering opportunities to increase the quantity, quality and locality of our renewable energy purchases where feasible and adding to our coverage in the Asia Pacific.”
