DLA Piper advise Global Switch on PPA with RWE

DLA Piper has advised data centre partner, Global Switch, on the signing of an eight-year Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with German renewable energy developer RWE in the UK.

The PPA will see Global Switch offtake around 70GWh of power per year from RWE’s Brechfa Forest West onshore wind farm in South Wales. Commissioned in 2018 and comprising 28 turbines, the wind farm has a capacity of 57.4MW. The PPA, which came into force this month, will be attributed to Global Switch’s London Docklands data center.

Global Switch’s Docklands data center has 224MVA of power available and hosts H100 and H200 GPUs for CoreWeave, in what Global Switch claims is Europe’s largest deployment of the Nvidia hardware. The company operates two sites in the Docklands - London East and London North, and announced plans in 2024 for a third facility, London South, which will offer 40MW across 27,000 sqm (290,625 sq ft).

The DLA Piper team consisted of Finance Senior Associate Tom Metcalfe, Of Counsel Jennifer Keogh, Senior Associate Hayley Kinsey and Trainee Solicitor Fran Borlos.

Natasha Luther-Jones, Partner and Global Co-Chair of Energy and Natural Resources, commented "The electricity demand for datacentres continues to grow rapidly globally and shows no sign of slowing, not least because of the surge in AI-usage. We're thrilled to have supported Global Switch in this new agreement with RWE which will ensure that renewable power equivalent to a portion of that load is delivered to the grid."