Orange & Engie In Partnership to Convert Orange’s Main Data Centre In Africa to Solar Powered

The Groupement Orange Services (GOS), which is a resource-pooling entity for the 18 Orange Middle East and Africa (OMEA) subsidiaries, provided pol hosting and infrastructure operation services to all the subsidiaries.

In 2016, the data centre in Africa was established in Grand Bassam, Cote d’Ivoire, on a site that covers over 16,000 m² which houses IT and other telecommunication equipment that gives support to the services being offered by the GOS to all OMEA subsidiaries.

The GOS is officially known to be one of the main components of the Orange data centre network in Africa, with Uptime Institute Tier 3 certification design. It helps Orange solidify its position as the main player in the sub-region’s economic ecosystem. The GOS also helps in promoting and enhancing digital equality by supporting several states in advancing agricultural, healthcare and educational services while fostering entrepreneurship and local innovation like online casino sites and many others.

Two months ago, December 2021 to be precise, Orange signed a partnership EaaS (Energy-as-a-Service) contract with Engie in a bid to convert the GOS to solar power through the installation of a solar plant on rooftops and solar carports, for an install capacity of 335kWp, which will significantly reduce its environmental footprint, minimize the share of non-renewable sources of electricity and avoiding the use of fuel generators that emits CO2. This commission will be happening in the second half of 2022, a year for best nz online casino users in the African country.

The plant will consist of 784 latest-generation photovoltaic cells while providing the data centre with an estimated 527MWh/year of renewable energy. Designed in a self-consumption mode, it will be working seven days a week, which means that the data centre will be using the energy just as it is being produced by the Sun.

The decision to convert the GOS to solar-powered is in agreement with Cote d’Ivoire’s plan of making the country the sub-region’s energy hub by 2030 with 42% of renewable energy.

Speaking to the media, Chairman of Orange Middle East and Africa, AliouneNdiaye said: “This project is a first in West Africa for Orange in terms of its size and scope and it perfectly illustrates our ambition to speed up our solar projects in order to achieve net-zero carbon by 2040. In the rest of Africa and the Middle East, we have already implemented several initiatives, as equipping 5,400 telecoms sites by solar panels and building solar farms in Jordan and Mali. We intend to go further.”

CEO of Engie Services West Africa, Armand Seya said: “Engie Africa is active in electricity production, energy services and decentralised solutions for off-grid customers across the continent. We are proud to support the GOS in its energy transition having ensured the multi-technical maintenance of the data centre since 2019 and now with the implementation of this solar plant.”