Italian cable manufacturer Prysmian and Anglo-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto have partnered to supply an Amazon data center in Ohio with low-carbon aluminum.

Under the agreement, the companies will supply the data center with aluminum electrical cables. The aluminum will be produced by Elysis, a joint venture company between Rio Tinto and US aluminum producer Alcoa. The process works by replacing traditional carbon anodes with proprietary inert materials during aluminum smelting, eliminating greenhouse gases and releasing pure oxygen instead as a byproduct.

Prysmian will, in turn, use the aluminum to manufacture the electrical cables at its Sedalia, Missouri, facility for deployment at the data center. The project will be the first time the low-carbon aluminum has been used within a data center environment. The exact data center where the cables will be deployed has not been disclosed. Amazon operates multiple data centers in Ohio, and is building several others as part of plans to spend $23 billion in the state by 2030.

Wesco will support the distribution and delivery of the cabling to the project site.

“We aim to reach net-zero emissions across our operations by 2040 through decarbonizing our operations and supply chain, down to the raw materials. Traditionally, making aluminum is carbon-intensive, but this wire was made with technology that emits oxygen instead of carbon dioxide and perfluorocarbons,” said Joern Tinnemeyer, VP of data center engineering at Amazon Web Services (AWS).

“Prysmian, Rio Tinto, and Wesco are showing that lower-carbon materials aren't a future concept – they're here and going into Amazon data centers today.”

“The data center industry needs advanced technologies like this: cables that can effectively carry power, meet high-quality standards, and make a positive impact on the sustainability of the entire value chain,” added Srinivas Siripurapu, chief sustainability, R&D, and innovation officer for Prysmian.

This is the second deal signed between Amazon and Rio Tinto on the supply of low-carbon materials. In January, AWS inked an agreement with the mining firm to supply low-carbon copper produced using its Nuton bioleaching technology for AWS data centers in the US.

The company has also signed other deals within the low-carbon building space, including a deal with Brimstone, a low-carbon cement company based in Oakland, California, to reserve volumes of its cement last year.