Digital Realty has announced it earned the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's ENERGY STAR® certification for superior energy performance in 24 data centers in 2018. Separately, Digital Realty also announced it has enrolled in a new sustainable energy offering from Salt River Project under which Digital Realty will source a portion of the energy consumed by its Arizona data center portfolio from a new 100-megawatt solar plant to be built in Coolidge, AZ. 

EPA ENERGY STAR certifications indicate Digital Realty data centers rank in the top 25 percent of similar facilities nationwide for energy efficiency. Digital Realty's ENERGY STAR-certified data centers are now saving a total of 720,000 megawatt hours relative to industry-average data centers, enough to power 80,000 average U.S. homes for a year and eliminating 535,000 metric tons of CO₂ emissions. Digital Realty's ENERGY STAR-certified data centers also perform better than 87% of data centers based on the EPA industry benchmark, with industry-leading power usage effectiveness of 1.38 in certified properties compared to the industry average of 1.8.

"Digital Realty's commitment to ENERGY STAR benchmarking and certification reflects its longstanding focus on achieving exceptional data center energy performance," said Michael Zatz, manager, ENERGY STAR Commercial Buildings Program. "Digital Realty is leading by example in the data center industry, efficiently powering the digital economy." 

Digital Realty continues to improve its energy performance by managing energy strategically across the entire organization and making cost-effective improvements to its buildings as part of the company's commitment to the U.S. Department of Energy's Better Buildings Challenge and leadership in sustainable data center development and operations. The 24 facilities certified in 2018 total 385,000 kilowatts of data center capacity, representing more than one-third of Digital Realty's U.S. data center portfolio. 

Commenting on the solar energy program, Salt River Project General Manager and CEO Mike Hummel added, "We are excited to offer a program that can meet the needs of customers like Digital Realty, with utility-scale solar energy at a competitive price."

"Receiving ENERGY STAR certification for a significant portion of our data center portfolio speaks to the expertise of our data center design and operations teams and their sustained focus on achieving high levels of energy performance for our customers. These certifications are another element of our commitment to deliver to our clients best-in-class global data center solutions that minimize environmental impacts,” said Aaron Binkley, senior director of sustainability, Digital Realty.

"With respect to the solar energy commitment, Digital Realty continues to actively engage with Salt River Project and other utility providers to identify cost-effective renewable energy solutions. We applaud Salt River Project's efforts to develop this solar offering, which supports our objectives to bring clean energy to our customers," he added.