Renewable-powered facilities seen as key to jobs, skills and innovation

Union Minister of State for Power and New & Renewable Energy, Shripad Yesso Naik, has said that the rise of ‘carbon-free’ data centres will generate employment, strengthen domestic manufacturing in renewable energy and storage systems, and encourage new business models at the interface of digital and clean energy.

Speaking at the inaugural Data Centre Summit on Carbon-Free Energy in the capital on Thursday, Naik underlined that “every new carbon-free data centre built in India will create green jobs, boost indigenous manufacturing of renewable and storage systems, and generate new business models for digital energy convergence.” The event was organised by the National Solar Energy Federation of India (NSEFI) in partnership with Amazon.

He stressed that India’s energy transition must be seen as more than a matter of megawatts and gigawatts, noting: “It is about jobs, skills, and innovation.”
According to NSEFI, carbon-free data centres are facilities that rely wholly on renewable energy sources such as solar and wind, alongside storage technologies, to meet their electricity needs. Deepak Gupta, Director General of NSEFI, pointed out that data centres may directly procure solar power from farmers’ fields or acquire green attributes via decentralised agrivoltaic projects.

NSEFI, an umbrella body for renewable energy companies spanning developers, manufacturers and EPC contractors, convened the summit to align policymakers, renewable energy leaders and data centre operators on the path towards a sustainable and carbon-neutral digital infrastructure.