German data center operator Maincubes has signed a 10-year Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) to acquire solar energy to run one of its facilities in Frankfurt.
The company, which operates colocation data centers used by businesses, public sector organizations, and cloud service providers, had struck a deal with energy provider Stadtwerke Göttingen AG.
It is buying 34MWp of solar power from Stadtwerke Göttingen, enough to run its FRA03 data center.
The contract is the first PPA signed by Maincubes, and the company’s CTO Albrecht Kraas described it as “a milestone that we are proud of."
Kraas said: “We are setting the framework for future sustainability standards and further optimizing an environmentally friendly energy supply for our data centers."
FR03 was announced by Maincubes in 2022 and is a 7,500 sq m (80,000 sq ft) data center which forms part of the company’s portfolio in Frankfurt. It offers 16MW of IT capacity and was due to come online this year, but the maincubes website now says it will be ready for service from Q4 2025.
The company also recently announced a new Frankfurt facility, FR04, which will feature 40MW of capacity. It will go live in 2027.
As part of its wider sustainability efforts, Maincubes said it has supported the construction of wind turbines and a hydropower plant in India.
"The conclusion of the PPA agreement with maincubes gives Stadtwerke Göttingen AG the economic security for further major investments in renewable energies to achieve climate targets in the Göttingen region," says Jochen Ritter, head of energy services and heating at Stadtwerke Göttingen AG.
