Abu Dhabi, UAE, 4 March 2018 –   Masdar, Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company, a subsidiary of the Mubadala Investment Company (Mubadala), today announced that it will install a 290-kilowatt (KW) solar photovoltaic (PV) system to serve the facility of Khazna Data Centres (Khazna) in Masdar City. 

In the presence of Khaled Al Qubaisi, Chief Executive Officer, Aerospace, Renewables and Information Communications Technology for Mubadala, Mohamed Jameel Al Ramahi, Chief Executive Officer of Masdar, and Hassan Al Naqbi, Chief Executive Officer of Khazna, signed a collaboration agreement on the project, aimed at further advancing Abu Dhabi’s reputation as a hub for renewable energy and clean technology.  

Under the terms of the agreement, Masdar’s Energy Services unit will install a solar PV system on the car park roof at Khazna’s Masdar City facility. The project will serve as a pilot for additional sustainable initiatives at both Khazna facilities in the future. 

Khaled Al Qubaisi, CEO for Mubadala Aerospace, Renewables and ICT, who oversees both Masdar and Khazna, said: “The UAE is committed to building a sustainable nation of the future, and pursuing bold ambitions – aiming to achieve 27% clean energy over the next three years as part of the UAE 2021 Vision. Mubadala and its subsidiaries are committed to supporting this vision, and are always looking at ways to adopt clean energy technology. This project between Masdar and Khazna is another step forward for our sustainability plans, with more projects like this to come in future.” 

Masdar CEO Mohamed Jameel Al Ramahi said: “This partnership is an example of the synergy between Mubadala’s subsidiaries and capitalises on Masdar’s holistic expertise in renewable energy. It also shows our commitment to helping the tenants of Masdar City access the commercial benefits of clean technology by reducing their utility bills.”

Highlighting how this agreement fits into the long-term strategy of his company, Hassan Al Naqbi added: “Data centres have significant power consumption needs, and this new initiative represents a first step in Khazna’s long-term strategy of becoming a greener, sustainable facility. Not only will this support our environmental priorities and commitment to social responsibility in Abu Dhabi, it also makes commercial sense for our company and our end users -- by increasing energy efficiency and lowering costs.”

Khazna, the only dedicated commercial wholesale data centre provider in the UAE, safeguards mission-critical data using the highest levels of security and operational reliability. They provide industry benchmark levels of power supply and cooling services to better serve the growing need for data centre operations in the UAE and wider region.

With additional operations at Meydan, Dubai, Khazna is one of the largest data centre infrastructure operators in the Middle East and North Africa. The company is currently in the process of expanding its capabilities across both Abu Dhabi and Dubai. Once completed in 2019, these will include a total built-up area of around 31,000 square metres over the existing facilities and delivers over 24 MW of IT load. 

Their Masdar City data centre is designed to be 40 per cent more energy efficient than a typical data centre in the UAE. The new facilities will also target a Pearl 3 rating as per the Estidama system, the Abu Dhabi’s Department of Urban Planning and Municipalities’ green building code. 

Besides being a global player in the deployment of utility-scale renewable energy projects, Masdar is also one of the world’s largest developers of off-grid solutions. At Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week (ADSW) in January, Masdar announced that it had completed the installation of nearly 20,000 solar home systems in more than 1,000 rural villages in Morocco. Masdar’s off-grid projects span the Pacific, the Caribbean, and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) regions.

The total generating capacity of the renewable energy projects in which Masdar is developing and investing globally is around 3 gigawatts (GW).