Equinix has signed a 20-year power purchase agreement with wpd for more than 100 MW of French wind capacity, starting by 2025 and running to 2045. The contract is described as one of the largest of its kind signed in France. Most corporate deals of this length are signed to get new wind farms built. Several of the farms named in this one have been turning since the middle of the last decade.
Key takeaways
- Equinix signed a 20-year power purchase agreement with wpd in France, announced on 31 January 2024, covering more than 100 MW of wind capacity and more than 300 GWh of electricity a year.
- The Equinix and wpd contracts come into force by 2025 and support renewable energy in France until 2045, with Schneider Electric facilitating the agreement.
- The Equinix PPA covers seven wpd wind farms: four in Nouvelle-Aquitaine, two in Hauts-de-France and one in Pays de la Loire.
- The four Nouvelle-Aquitaine wind farms in the Equinix deal are Energie Tiper (6 MW, 2017), Clussais (11 MW, 2017), Mauze Thouarsais (7.05 MW, 2016) and Poitou-Charentes (21 MW, 2015), together 45.05 MW of operating capacity.
- Among 15 French wind PPAs announced in 2023 and 2024 in Enerdatics' Leap database, Equinix's 100 MW is the largest of the seven that disclose capacity, and its 20-year term equals the median of the 13 that disclose a duration.
Why would a 20-year contract start with wind farms that are already built?
Because what Equinix is buying is not only electricity. The Guarantees of Origin from the projects will be allocated to Equinix's data centres in France. A Guarantee of Origin is the European certificate that proves a unit of power came from a renewable source, and it is what lets a company count that power towards its own climate targets. Equinix says it aims to be climate neutral globally by 2030.
Operating wind farms deliver those certificates from day one. A new-build project carries construction risk and a commissioning date that can slip. By anchoring part of the contract on farms that have run since 2015, 2016 and 2017, Equinix secures supply that starts when the contract does.
The four named Nouvelle-Aquitaine sites add up to 45.05 MW. The contract covers more than 100 MW across seven farms, so the remaining three, in Hauts-de-France and Pays de la Loire, account for at least 55 MW. Leap's record does not name them or give their commissioning dates.
What does a contract to 2045 mean for farms built a decade ago?
It stretches them a long way. If the contract runs to 2045, Poitou-Charentes will have been operating for 30 years by the time it ends, and the two youngest named sites for 28. That is a long tail of output to commit to a single buyer.
The record does not say how wpd plans to supply the later years. It may involve repowering, which means replacing old turbines with new, usually larger ones on the same site, or drawing on other farms in the wpd fleet. Neither is stated, so neither should be assumed. What can be said is that the contract's length is set by Equinix's needs, not by the age of the assets.
The volume figures are consistent with a mature onshore fleet. More than 300 GWh a year from more than 100 MW implies a capacity factor of around 34 percent. Capacity factor is the share of a plant's maximum possible output that it actually produces over a year.
How does the Equinix contract compare with other French wind PPAs?
It is bigger than every other contract that discloses capacity, and about as long as most. Enerdatics' data shows 15 wind PPAs announced in France across 2023 and 2024. Seven disclose the capacity contracted, and Equinix's 100 MW is the largest by a wide margin; the next two are Voltalia's 37.4 MW contract with SNCF Voyageurs and Valorem's 36 MW contract with SNCF Energie. Thirteen disclose a term, ranging from three years to 25, with a median of exactly 20. None of the 15 discloses a price.
The buyer list is just as telling. Three of the 15 contracts were signed by data centre operators: Equinix in January 2024, Data4 with Eurowatt in March 2024, and Digital Realty in May 2024. Digital Realty's supplier was also wpd, on a 15-year term. In a market where retailers, rail operators and hydrogen producers make up much of the buying, wpd has signed with two of the three data centre buyers on record.
What does the deal signal for French corporate PPAs?
It signals that data centres have become a distinct buyer group in France, and that they behave differently from industrial buyers. Their demand is large, steady and tied to public climate commitments, which suits long contracts and certificate-based accounting. Equinix's 20-year term is long, but not unusual for the French market, and its volume sets it well apart.
It also signals a supply strategy for developers with older fleets. Wind farms built in the mid-2010s can be re-contracted to corporate buyers who value immediate certificate delivery. For wpd, that turns ageing capacity into a 20-year revenue line and builds a relationship that it extended to Digital Realty four months later.
Equinix has used the same approach elsewhere in Europe. In Portugal it signed a second solar contract with Sonnedix seven months after its first in Spain, and Equinix's Spanish solar contract was copied into Portugal on almost identical terms. In France it has chosen wind, a longer term and a supplier with operating assets. The common thread is a buyer that repeats a structure once it works.
The French record leaves two gaps. No price is disclosed on any of the 15 contracts, so the market's value per megawatt hour remains private. And three of the seven farms behind Equinix's contract are unnamed, which leaves part of its supply base unknown.
Frequently asked questions
What did Equinix sign with wpd in France? Equinix signed a 20-year power purchase agreement with wpd, announced in January 2024, for more than 100 MW of wind capacity and more than 300 GWh a year, coming into force by 2025 and running until 2045.
Which wind farms supply the Equinix PPA? Seven wpd wind farms: four in Nouvelle-Aquitaine (Energie Tiper, Clussais, Mauze Thouarsais and Poitou-Charentes, totalling 45.05 MW), two in Hauts-de-France and one in Pays de la Loire.
Who facilitated the Equinix and wpd agreement? Schneider Electric facilitated the agreement. The Guarantees of Origin from the wind farms will be allocated to Equinix's data centres in France.
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