Nigeria’s information centre operators are being pressured to rethink how they energy their energy-intensive services as diesel costs hover round ₦1,000 per litre and the nationwide grid struggles to ship a steady 5,000 megawatts — far wanting the wants of over 215 million folks. For Rack Centre, the Lagos-based carrier-neutral information centre operator, the reply lies in a decisive shift towards fuel and photo voltaic vitality to maintain operations operating effectively and help the surging energy calls for of Nigeria’s quickly increasing digital financial system.
Rack Centre’s Chief Government Officer, Lars Johannisson, instructed TechCabal on October 28, 2025, that vitality effectivity is now not an possibility however “the one possibility” for operators who wish to keep aggressive. “Knowledge centres are digital belongings, and they’re very capex-heavy, typically dollar-exposed,” Johannisson stated. “Value and vitality optimisation is just not a desired possibility; it’s the one one we’ve got, each for ourselves and our shoppers.”
Knowledge centres are the spine of digital transformation, enabling cloud companies, AI workloads, fintech operations, and enterprise computing. However they’re additionally notoriously power-intensive. Globally, information centres consumed about 1.5% of complete electrical energy or 415 terawatt-hours (TWh) in 2024, with projections suggesting that this determine might double by 2030. In Africa, annual energy demand for information centres is rising at 20–25%, and in Nigeria, the place electrical energy is unreliable and diesel stays costly, operators face a good harder problem.
Power prices now account for over 35% of complete working bills for information centres in Nigeria, far greater than in lots of different areas. A single 1-megawatt information centre operating on diesel backup turbines can burn by way of about 270 litres of diesel per hour, costing over ₦275,400 per hour at ₦1,020 per litre of diesel.
“Power is the elephant within the room,” Johannisson stated. “Because the sector grows from the present 25-megawatt put in base to 180–200 megawatts, the largest query is: how can we energise that progress sustainably?”
Constructing for a hybrid vitality future
To handle this, Rack Centre is creating what Johannisson calls a “hybrid vitality technique,” combining pure fuel and solar energy to cut back its reliance on diesel and stabilise vitality prices. “We’re constructing on photo voltaic panels, which have grow to be a part of our enterprise,” he stated. “We additionally proceed to construct on fuel technology as a result of these are, in the present day, probably the most handy and cost-efficient methods to energy an information centre.”
Fuel-fired energy technology gives a number of benefits in Nigeria’s vitality panorama. Pure fuel is just not solely cheaper, usually 30–60% lower than diesel, but in addition cleaner and extra steady in provide. By mixing fuel and photo voltaic, Rack Centre hopes to mitigate gas value volatility and cut back its carbon footprint, aligning with each its shoppers’ sustainability objectives and Nigeria’s broader vitality transition agenda.
The transfer comes amid rising regional momentum for inexperienced information infrastructure. Africa Knowledge Centres (ADC) and Open Entry Knowledge Centres (OADC) have each just lately rolled out photo voltaic and hybrid vitality techniques in South Africa and Kenya, whereas exploring gas-based options for Nigeria. Rack Centre’s technique, nevertheless, focuses totally on Nigeria-first growth, with photo voltaic and fuel positioned as key pillars for each resilience and competitiveness.
Sustainability as a progress technique
Rack Centre has lengthy touted sustainability as certainly one of its defining options. Based in 2013, the corporate operates a Tier III-certified facility that has achieved an trade file, zero downtime in over a decade of operation. Johannisson says that operational reliability and environmental duty go hand in hand.
“Our shoppers, huge and small, need probably the most energy-efficient options potential,” he defined. “They wish to develop with us, however with the bottom carbon footprint achievable. That’s why we’re making ready by way of our fuel and PV (photo voltaic) journey, to guide what we name sustainable digitalisation.”
The corporate’s newest 12-megawatt hyperscale-ready growth embodies that philosophy. Designed with adaptive infrastructure, it may possibly deal with high-density racks, starting from 40 to over 100 kilowatts, splendid for rising AI and GPU-intensive workloads. These workloads demand far better cooling and energy effectivity, areas the place Rack Centre is investing closely to remain forward.
“Our new facility is constructed for AI,” Johannisson stated. “It’s versatile sufficient to deal with future compute density whereas sustaining vitality effectivity by way of design, whether or not by way of cooling, energy optimization, or hybrid energy integration.”
Nigeria’s coverage panorama: collaboration, not confrontation
Regardless of widespread considerations about regulatory bottlenecks in Nigeria’s digital infrastructure ecosystem, Johannisson stays optimistic. He praises ongoing collaborations with businesses resembling NITDA and the Nigerian Communications Fee (NCC) on insurance policies associated to information sovereignty, cloud adoption, and digital infrastructure.
“I don’t suppose there’s any coverage slowing growth,” he stated. “In truth, I see insurance policies within the making that can enhance the sector’s progress fee. Discussions on information sovereignty, cloud-first methods, and vitality transition are very constructive for the trade.”
He believes that Nigeria’s authorities and regulators can play a crucial position in incentivizing vitality investments for the digital financial system. “We should always proceed discussing vitality demand — not simply now, however for the longer term,” he stated. “Knowledge centres are long-term infrastructure initiatives. Until we construct out vitality capability, we can’t shut the digital divide or develop in step with the nation’s youth profile.”
Competing by way of neutrality and uptime
Rack Centre additionally differentiates itself by way of what Johannisson describes as “cloud and entry neutrality” — the flexibility to host shoppers from a number of cloud suppliers and community operators with out choice. This neutrality, he argues, is important for constructing belief and scalability in Nigeria’s digital ecosystem.
“Giant cloud distributors favor access-neutral information centres,” he stated. “That’s a part of what units us aside. The largest progress will occur in cloud and access-neutral environments — and that’s the place we stand.”
Equally vital is Rack Centre’s observe file of uninterrupted service. “We’re the one information centre that has been up and operating since 2013 with out dropping one single second,” Johannisson stated proudly. “That uptime is integral to who we’re.”
This operational consistency, coupled with a various peering ecosystem of carriers, web service suppliers, and enterprise shoppers, makes Rack Centre one of many strongest digital interconnection hubs in West Africa.
Past Nigeria: Regional alternatives forward
Whereas Johannisson insists Nigeria stays Rack Centre’s “first, second, and third precedence,” he acknowledges the corporate is evaluating selective growth alternatives in East, Southern, and North Africa, the place cloud adoption is accelerating. “We might see comparable demand patterns in East Africa, Egypt, and presumably different Northern African international locations,” he stated.
Nevertheless, the CEO emphasises that Rack Centre’s quick aim is to deepen its footprint in Nigeria, the continent’s largest and most promising cloud market. “We consider Nigeria represents probably the most related and dominant cloud alternative in all of Africa,” he stated.
Rack Centre’s gas-solar hybrid technique might supply a glimpse of what the longer term holds — a mannequin the place sustainability, effectivity, and reliability converge. For Johannisson, it’s not nearly chopping prices however redefining how Africa powers its digital progress.
“Ultimately,” he stated, “sustainable vitality isn’t simply an environmental alternative — it’s a enterprise crucial. If we will remedy vitality, we will unlock the complete potential of Nigeria’s digital financial system.”
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