In what has been described as a first for the hydropower industry, Rye Development has developed an agreement with Iron Mountain that could see new hydropower added to existing dams being used to power data centers in the US.
Unlike a typical power purchase agreement (PPA) — where a buyer agrees to purchase energy from a single renewable energy project for a set period of time — Iron Mountain has agreed to purchase up to 150MW of power over the next 10 years from several of Rye Development’s low-impact hydroelectric projects in the PJM wholesale electricity market.
Rye Development seeks to integrate power generation capabilities into existing dams that currently have no capacity to generate electricity. It currently has more than a dozen projects in the pipeline.
The offtake agreement between the two companies significantly shortens the time required to execute a clean energy PPA while providing both the buyer and seller the certainty they need to meet their business and climate goals.
“Our agreement paves the way for a new era of clean energy production in the Mid-Atlantic
region,” said Paul Jacob, CEO, Rye Development. “By unlocking the potential of numerous low impact hydro projects, we can work with Iron Mountain to meet their 100%, 24/7 renewable energy goals.”
“As a data center operator, we are committed to matching local electricity use with local carbon free power generation every hour, every day,” added Mark Kidd, Iron Mountain’s EVP & GlobalGeneral Manager, Data Centers & Asset Lifecycle Management. “In addition to buying power from existing clean energy projects, we’re committing to long-term power purchase agreements that result in the development of new carbon-free projects that can directly support our data centers there.”
