Telehouse & RWE: Powering Data Centres with Wind

Telehouse Europe is signing a 10 year PPA with RWE, the UK’s largest power generator and a world-leading renewable energy company.

Under the terms of the agreement, RWE will supply a significant amount of the renewable energy used at Telehouse’s London Docklands campus until the end of 2035.

Electricity will be supplied by the London Array offshore wind farm located in the outer Thames Estuary.

Commencing in October 2025, the PPA promises to secure the supply of power to Telehouse and its customers for a number of years.

“This power purchase agreement ensures Telehouse and its customers have reliable access to clean, renewable electricity, providing certainty on price and the robustness of supply,” says Olaf Lubenow, Head of Commodity Solutions UK, North & South Europe of RWE Supply & Trading.

“We are pleased to support Telehouse also in its decarbonisation efforts as our goal is to advance climate protection in all sectors of the economy with clean energy solutions.”

Telehouse's sustainability commitments

Telehouse's London Docklands campus, known as one of the most connected data centre hubs in Europe, continues to push the envelope on sustainability.

The site implements various measures such as the integration of biofuel and the exploration of hydrogen as a potential energy source.

Data Centre Magazine visited the site at the end of 2024 and learnt that the campus burns roughly 400 litres of fuel an hour and has acoustic panels built in to break up any escaping heat, in addition to cleaning fuel loops to integrate biofuel.

Paul Sharp, Senior Buildings Manager at Telehouse, said that there was talk of the campus moving towards hydrogen in the future, but these conversations are still in their infancy.

He shared: “As we look to the future, we will continue to build out further floors within Telehouse South and optimise our infrastructure. This includes trialling new cooling solutions, such as liquid cooling systems, to handle the increasing heat density associated with emerging technologies.”

As business for Telehouse continues to boom, with more people being connected worldwide than ever before, the organisation is committed to becoming a driving force for sustainability in the data centre industry.

A significant part of this is procuring electricity from 100% renewable sources to power its data centres. 

Renewable energy for data centres

The industry-wide shift towards sustainability is gaining momentum, with many data centre operators recognising the critical need for renewable energy sources.

Investments into renewable energy providers is still in the early stages, but are becoming necessary for data centres if they want to remain future-proof and less burdensome to local grids.

The offshore wind farm that is to support Telehouse, London Array, is operated by RWE and owned by a consortium of four partners, RWE, Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, Greencoat UK Wind PLC and Masdar Energy UK Limited.

At present, it has 175 wind turbines and an installed capacity of 630 megawatts. From the time of its opening in 2013 until September 2018, it was the largest offshore wind farm in the world.

“Telehouse is committed to enhancing energy efficiency, promoting green procurement, and reducing our carbon footprint and that of our customers,” shares Mushtaq Choudhary, Head of Procurement at Telehouse Europe.

“Thanks to this PPA with RWE, the electricity purchased for our London Docklands campus will continue to be derived from renewable energy sources, demonstrating our efforts to drive efficiency at our campus and deliver real benefits for our customers.”

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