{"id":605606,"date":"2025-08-07T13:01:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-07T11:01:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=605606"},"modified":"2025-08-07T13:02:43","modified_gmt":"2025-08-07T11:02:43","slug":"south-africas-biggest-data-centre-company-saying-goodbye-to-eskom-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/cloud-hosting\/605606-south-africas-biggest-data-centre-company-saying-goodbye-to-eskom-power.html","title":{"rendered":"South Africa’s biggest data centre company saying goodbye to Eskom power"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

South Africa’s largest data centre company, Teraco, has reaffirmed its plan to stop using fossil fuel-based electricity to power its operations by 2035.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Teraco’s eight data centres currently support a critical power load capacity of 185MW across its four campuses in three major cities \u2014 Johannesburg, Cape Town, and Durban.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company has already installed 6MW of rooftop solar at its campuses, which it will expand to 10MW capacity by the end of 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company will also buy 120MW of privately generated power from a utility-scale solar plant in the Free State, which is also set to become operational in 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These developments will enable Teraco to have 50% of its electricity sourced from clean sources by 2027. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Teraco also signed a power purchase agreement with NOA for wind power, which is essential to support its electricity demand when the sun is down or solar production is low. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In ten years, it aims to supply its entire power demand from renewable sources. While it will continue to have a grid connection to wheel electricity, Eskom may have slipped out of the picture by then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The power utility is being split into three separate entities, with the National Transmission Company of South Africa (NTCSA) taking over the transmission network, over which electricity is wheeled. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The NTCSA was spun off from Eskom’s main business as a legally separate subsidiary of the company in 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It will transition to a fully independent transmission system operator over the next five years, ensuring it treats both Eskom generation and private power providers equally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bulk of South Africa’s new renewable energy is expected to come from independent power producers, which are already supplying electricity at much lower rates than Eskom’s coal plants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Jan Hnizdo told MyBroadband the company’s energy shift was driven primarily by its focus on becoming 100% renewable energy-reliant, not electricity savings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“This also aligned with the needs and expectations of our client base, who are also setting near-term renewable energy goals and targeting significant carbon reduction,” Hnizdo said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not a “net-zero” strategy<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
A Teraco data centre with extensive rooftop solar capacity over parking bays and the main building’s roof.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

While many companies have expressed plans to reach “net-zero” or carbon neutrality over the next few decades, Teraco’s 100% renewable energy goal is different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Net-zero can be achieved by offsetting the company’s environmental impact through the purchase of green credits from other projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These companies can continue using more harmful energy sources but effectively pay a financial penalty for doing so. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to being backed by projects that have reached financial close or are under construction, Teraco’s plans will deliver new renewable energy generation capacity to the national grid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hnizdo criticised commitments linked to projects that don’t have a clear path to closing or are merely linked to the purchase of renewable energy certificates or green attributes from legacy projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These do not promote any additional renewable energy generation or benefit to South Africa as a whole.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hnizdo added that South Africa was uniquely positioned to leverage solar irradiance and position itself as a potential leader in climate-resilient data centre development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“In a global economy increasingly shaped by decarbonisation, South Africa’s solar potential is a powerful lever for sustainable growth and long-term competitiveness,” Hnizdo said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wind energy will also be a key resource for data centre operators like Teraco, which need to operate 24\/7.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Wind blows through the night and during the day, making it a natural accompaniment to solar power,” Hnizdo said. “When combined, they enable far greater levels of renewable energy penetration.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Teraco is taking renewable power seriously, using its own onsite solar power and wheeled solar and wind power, rather than buying green credits to reach “net-zero.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341042,"featured_media":594155,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,27995],"tags":[39258,22807,30496,29400,81416,4922,441,100906,22333],"class_list":["post-605606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cloud-hosting","category-energy","tag-coal-power","tag-data-centres","tag-fossil-fuels","tag-jan-hnizdo","tag-renewable-power","tag-solar-power","tag-teraco","tag-teraco-data-centres","tag-wind-power"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605606"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341042"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=605606"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605606\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":605679,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605606\/revisions\/605679"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/594155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=605606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=605606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=605606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}