Indonesia: PDG: Geothermal energy for Indonesian data centers

PDG has announced that it has bought renewable energy certificates (RECs) from state-owned electricity firm, PLN, for geothermal energy for the operation of three data centers in Jakarta, Bandung, and Pekanbaru, in Indonesia. This further cements the company's partnership with PLN, from whom it has been buying RECs from since 2020; the first corporate buyer to do so.  The facilities will be supplied from the PLTP Kamojang geothermal project, which is in West Java, and south of Bandung. The project reportedly has a total geothermal output of 236MW.

Speaking about the REC purchase, which was issued through the Clean Energy Investment Accelerator (CEIA), Stephanus Tumbelaka, managing director at PDG Indonesia, said: "The RECs offset the carbon footprint of our data centers and demonstrate PDG's commitment to support the sustainability goals of our customers. It advances our strategy towards having all our data centers powered by renewable energy by 2030."

Doddy B. Pangaribuan, general manager of PLN Jakarta Raya Main Distribution Unit, added: "We highly appreciate PDG for the commitment to using clean energy to support a greener Indonesia. Through REC, PLN enables customers in running sustainable businesses and supports customers together with the government to achieve our Net Zero Emission target by 2060."

While RECs are a big part of many companies' sustainability strategies, researchers argue that they "cannot credibly be used to back claims of 100 percent renewable energy use."