Finnish oil refining firm Neste Oyj has signed an agreement with European data center firm Verne to supply renewable diesel to power the company's backup generators in Finland.
Neste will deploy the renewable diesel at all of Verne’s Finnish data centers. Verne currently has three operational facilities in the country: a 50MW center in Helsinki, an 11MW center in Pori, and a colocation facility in Tampere. All three data centers are powered by 100 percent renewable energy through local and regional partners.
Neste renewable diesel is a Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO) produced from renewable raw materials, such as animal fat from food industry waste and used cooking oil.
It is a drop-in replacement fuel that can be used without modifications to existing engines. It can also be blended with diesel. In addition, it is suited for use in cold weather, with storage available at temperatures as low as -32°C.
The decision to switch to renewable diesel is predicated on Verne’s commitment to reducing the carbon footprint of its data center operations.
“The switch to renewable diesel is a milestone for the company and our customers, as it means we can eliminate fossil fuels from our operations in Finland. In addition to reducing GHG emissions, Neste’s renewable diesel works very effectively in cold temperatures and is an ideal solution for our Finnish operations,” says Kim Gunnelius, head of Finland at Verne.
Neste has signed several supply agreements with data center companies over recent years.
In July, It signed a deal with ST Telemedia Global Data Centres to provide HVO to its data centers in Singapore.
Before this, in January 2022, it signed a supply agreement with Latvian data center operator DEAC to provide HVO to its data centers in Riga and Vilnius.
Verne has also made several high-profile announcements in recent months. The most notable being its acquisition by Ardian in March. The investment firm acquired the entire share capital of Verne from UK infrastructure firm Digital 9 Infrastructure.