Australia’s Largest Rooftop Commercial Solar Power Project Announced

NEXTDC Limited has announced what will be Australia's largest privately-owned rooftop solar panel system at its Port Melbourne data centre. The solar farm will be installed by award-winning solar provider, Energy Matters.

NEXTDC Limited (ASX:NXT) (“the Company” or “NEXTDC”) has made another unprecedented move for the Australian data centre industry by committing to build what will be Australia’s largest privately-owned rooftop photovoltaic solar system at its Port Melbourne data centre called “M1”.

NEXTDC will install up to 400kW of solar panels to generate around 550 MWh (megawatt hours) of electricity per annum.

A system of this size will offset over 670 tonnes of CO2 per annum. This equates to taking around 200 cars off the road, or powering NABERS 4 star office space for over 890 people.

Bevan Slattery, CEO of NEXTDC, said that NEXTDC was working in partnership with Australia’s leading solar power firm, Energy Matters, who will construct and install the system over the next couple of months.

“Our installation of a large scale solar system is a first for data centres in Asia-Pacific and we are proud to be leading the way. We are very aware of the future pressures on energy consumption and we are committed to reducing our carbon footprint however we can,” Mr Slattery said.

NEXTDC aims to lead the Australian ICT sector in solar power generation and energy efficiency, following trends in the US where industry giants are investing in large scale solar projects. For example, Google has four solar farms underway in California while Apple recently announced a project to build a 20MW
solar farm at its Maiden data centre facility in North Carolina.

NEXTDC has already incorporated energy efficient measures into its new-build data centres such as trigeneration plant and outside free air-cooling. After successful deployment of the solar panels at M1, additional investments will be made at their other data centres around Australia.

“We are proud to be the first data centre operator in Australia to invest in solar energy,” Mr Slattery said. “In fact, we are also committing to install up to 1MW of solar energy within the next 12 months at our upcoming data centre facilities”.

Jeremy Rich, Managing Director of Energy Matters said that it was exciting for Energy Matters to be a part of this project.

“As one of first truly large-scale, privately funded and owned rooftop PV solar systems, we see this as the start of something big for commercial solar in Australia and applaud NEXT DC for taking the lead,” Mr Rich said.

About NEXTDC

NEXTDC was established in May 2010 by one of Australia’s most successful information technology and internet entrepreneurs, Mr Bevan Slattery, to build and operate premium data centres in Australia and New Zealand.

NEXTDC is the only ASX-listed independent data centre operator with strategic footprint in all major growth markets in Australia, namely Brisbane, Melbourne, Canberra, Perth and Sydney.

NEXTDC offers a range of highly flexible, scalable, resilient and secure colocation services to corporate, government and wholesale customers.

NEXTDC’s purpose-built facilities have been designed to address the market’s growing appetite for energy-efficient, independent data centres in which organisations can host their critical IT infrastructure, and also to address the emergence and growth of cloud (internet-based) computing.

As a cloud enabler, NEXTDC’s enterprise-class data centre facilities address the challenges of security, connectivity and neutrality that have hindered the wider acceptance of cloud computing. The Company’sservices are underpinned by the principles of energy efficiency and sustainability wherever possible.

About Energy Matters

Energy Matters is one of Australia’s largest companies solely dedicated to renewable energy. Founded in 2005, Energy Matters has installed over 8,000 solar systems on homes, schools and commercial buildings, including one of Australia’s largest privately funded solar photovoltaic project – a 200kW rooftop array in Sydney.

Energy Matters is 100% Australian owned and sources only products which have been tested in Australia’s harsh conditions. With expertise in both grid connect and stand alone power, Energy Matters is able to provide flexible clean energy solutions to fit almost all needs. Energy Matters is proud of its commitment to ongoing innovation and product development. Its SunLock solar mounting system, designed and manufactured locally, has been used to mount over 75MW of solar panels to roofs across the nation.

In 2010 Energy Matters was recognised at the Melbourne Awards with a win in the category of Contribution to the Environment. In 2011 Energy Matters was a winner again at the Australian Business Awards in the categories of E-Business and Recommended Employer. A few months later the company was announced a Deloitte Technology Fast 50 winner.

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