Bharti Airtel announced the commissioning of a new 21 MW solar power plant in District Bhuldana, Maharashtra.
Airtel has tied up with Avaada to set up the captive power unit, which is spread over 80 acres, to supply clean energy to Nxtra by Airtel’s large and edge data centers, and switching centers in Maharashtra. The company expects a significant reduction of 25,517 tons in carbon emissions annually through this unit.

“This is yet another step to source more than 50 percent power requirements of data centres through renewable energy sources in next 12 months and contribute to Airtel’s overall GHG emission reduction targets,” Rajesh Tapadia, CEO, Nxtra by Airtel said in a news statement.

Nxtra by Airtel has already commissioned two captive solar power units of 14 MW each in Uttar Pradesh as part of its focus on green energy sources to power its operations. The company has the largest network of data centers in India with 11 large and 120 edge data centers across the country and will invest over Rs 5000 crore over the next four years to expand its capacity by 3X.

Airtel has committed to reduce absolute scope 1 and 2 Green House Gas (GHG) emissions across its operations by 50.2 percent by FY2031 (from FY2021 as base year). Airtel has also committed to reduce absolute scope 3 GHG emissions by 42 percent over the same timeframe.