Orange France – Renewable power purchasing
A decade ago , the thought of powering an energy intensive company like a telco , data centre or smart city development with renewable energy was considered laughable . However , in recent years , renewable energy has become sufficiently efficient , available and ( most importantly ) cheap to spark a huge migration of large scale enterprises towards green energy .
In July of this year , Orange - one of the world ’ s biggest telcos , with more than $ 48bn in sales in 2019 and 145,000 employees - announced that its French division had signed a power purchasing agreement with Canadian renewables company Boralex .
Boralex ’ s European division , which is France ’ s leading independent producer of onshore wind power , will supply Orange with 67 GWh per year of renewable electricity generated by the 26 wind turbines at the Ally-Mercoeur wind farm in the Auvergne Rhône-Alpes region . The five year agreement will come into effect in January of next year and will account for the entire annual production of the wind farm , which has an installed capacity of 39 MW .
“ At a time when the networks have been more crucial and in greater demand than ever , I am particularly proud of this agreement , which illustrates our commitment as one of the economic players paving the way in France on PPAs and thus contributing to our country ’ s energy transition ,” commented Fabienne Dulac , Deputy CEO of Orange SA and CEO of Orange France .
The agreement is part of Orange ’ s Engage 2025 strategic plan which details some sweeping carbon neutrality goals , including reaching a net zero carbon footprint by 2040 , despite the increase in network data transmissions as a result of 5G and other growth drivers . Again , net zero does not necessarily mean a total reduction in emissions , but green power purchasing agreements are one of the best steps that telecom companies can take towards reducing their carbon emissions .
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