A subsidiary of Swedish telecom group Telia, Telia Eesti AS will build a solar park next to its Laagri Data Center in Estonia to cover up electricity costs for the facility. It however does not mention the specific capacity of the solar park which is to be built by local solar power company Pro-Solar.

The project is to complete by the end of the summer and will be the first data center in Estonia to use solar energy, said Telia Eesti.

“Of course, this does not cover the energy needs of the entire data center, but it helps reduce electricity costs,” explained Toivo Praakel, Head of Telia Estonia’s Network and Infrastructure Unit. “Data centers have fairly uniform energy consumption, but there are still small round-the-clock and seasonal fluctuations. For example, in the summer period, somewhat more energy is spent on cooling data centers, and the energy received from the solar park helps to compensate for it.”

Telia said out of its 6 data centers, Laagri is the first to use solar energy. It also plans to have similar solar power solution for several of its mobile base stations this year, followed by a solar station in the town of Uuemõisa, in 2021.

Data centers are energy guzzlers and companies around the world are exploring renewable energy, specifically solar power, to help them bring down their electricity costs, including large US internet companies Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, among others.